We’re talking about moral relativism, right? If so, then a moral relativist believes there are no moral absolutes, meaning, there is no one moral standard that applies to everyone and every situation. Moral relativists often say, “That’s good for YOU, but it’s not good for ME. Everyone has his own truth.”
No, when you said theire are absolutes, you made a very clear statment about the “concept” of absolutes.
You never mentioned anything about morality.
Making a logical argument for “absolutes” makes no argument for moral absolutes at all. It is, as leela has indicated…a strawman.
The problem with that is this: by making such a claim, the moral relativist is claiming an absolute truth–that all truth is relative, absolutely. It is a self-defeating line of reasoning.
Not at all. You are the one taking the concept of absolutes and applying it to morality. This is a leap you are making not even remotely based on anything other than a belief that absolutes include moral rules. This is what you have been taught, and it is a clever use of logic that is all.
The relativists are saying that morals are not absolute truths. A quick look around the globe should highlight this to you.
It is not difficult to see why moral choices are not absolute, when we realize that the world is inherantly changing. What was good for humanity many years ago(have lots of babies), is no longer good for us at all as there are too many of us.
Morality is about enhancing human life in the best way we can determine throughout every generation. Jesus taught us a philosphy upon which we can achieve this. Morality has alway’s been about choice and growth. The entire OT show’s this endeavour. The concept of morality being absolute has never entered into the bible or jewish history. For them, it was the journey into understanding God and in an act of humility, they admited their mistakes and shared their process of growth with their children. The word Israel, means those that have been broken by God. Their history of this process, is one of the best accounts we have.
It has never, and will never be one of the absolutes YOU talk about. It changes, along with society.
The Jew’s did not form the 10 commandments overnight. They spent a massive struggle with faith and other communities so that they could eventually figure out a set of rules that would stop them from destroying each other.
The bible has nothing at all to do with absolutes. Quite the opposite. It is one group of humans struggle to understand the meaning of life, and how they can live correctly.
Your modern “absolutes” are an adaption that suits, because science has torn a hole in religion that religion cannot repair, unless it admits it has been wrong.
And people are no longer interested in living the mystery of life and discovering it’s purpose. They, like the pharassies that Jesus critisized ad-nausem are too busy telling everyone else how to live and what the truth of God was, to pay any attention to “God” whatsoever.
