Words To Live By

Can having words to live by really be dangerous?

Yesterday I heard a person say he was against animal cruelty laws because he couldn't find a logical and defensible set of words to defend them. If he saw a new machine, would he refuse to believe it existed until he could explain it and describe it? Reality, and the reality of right and wrong, exist outside of words - they are not the words themselves. In my opinion I guess they sometimes can be.

It's great to have guidelines, like "don't lie," or "we have the right to defend ourselves." It is even better to remember that these rules will someday fail us, and we will have to make new ones.

Words are just tools. How do you think cults are started, word manipulation. There are words to die by, but there are no words to live by.