I think Bagpuss' test is on the right lines. "Why would God command this?" usually confirms the basic rules about relating to others. I'd add "How does this fit with the God revealed in Jesus?" for Christians, which in my book rules out a lot of the pernickety detail, the jots and tittles of the law. It depends how you perceive Christ, of course, and your concept of God.

Yesterday I glanced at the beginning of a book on creationism. It postulated that the negative aspects of our world, such as radiation in the rocks, were the result of Adam's fall, not because of some link between him and the world inherent in the nature of creation, that was a spontaneous result, but because God went round afterwards, retuning the setup to make all sorts of nasties happen. I paraphrase, but not much. It is that sort of God who is a stickler for meaningless laws, or rather, the sort of person who would feel comfortable with that sort of God who is responsible for the problem. And if God is like that, I want a recount.

Penny