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Originally posted by taxwonk
Actually, I believe that there is an absolute moral code, derived from a divine source. Where we disagree is that I don't look to man's writings on that divine source as authority for anything other than historical, cultural, and political reference. The Bible, the Koran, the press conferences of Bill Frist, these are not the words of God. They are men perverting God to their purposes.
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I agree with you here. I you look at my posts I never used those documents as support for my positions.
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Originally posted by taxwonk However, having said that I believe that morality is absolute and it comes from a divine source does not mean I reject moral relativism as a social and political construct. Moral relativism is clearly practiced by many people, and almost universally by states. States can act no other way. Being corporate entities, they have no will or conscience. States are dependent on the people who control them to act, and the interaction of those people results by definition in some sort of consensus. .
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Here you kind of lost me. I believe all sorts of people practice moral relativism. Sure they cloak arguments they use for personal gain in a moral framework. But if you believe in a universal moral code these people are acting immorally.
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Originally posted by taxwonk The one thing I completely reject is any sort of instinctual basis for morality. Instinct leaves off where empathy and thought begin, and it is empathy and thought that control moral choices.
I take all of this on faith.
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OK - When you say empahty and thought, I am assuming you mean reason. But I don't think you can reason out morality. However, It seems to me that when we all think about it, deep down we all have the same idea of morality. I think deep down everyone, even in ancient times, understood that slavery was really wrong. I think the universal moral code is imprinted in all of us, if we just look for it is there.
