Or jumping off of other discussions, where do we ground moral questions. I think three of the obvious choices we have are:
1. The individual.
2. The society (either by the majority or by a politically powerful elite).
3. In a Creator, something like the Christian God, with an immutable, good, moral character.
I don't think most would agree with option one, if you take it to its logical end we would have moral chaos. Option two is better, but logically it would lead to relativism, cultural mores could be quite different. It may be perfectly acceptable to summarily execute political dissents is some societies and not others. And neither choice (to execute or not execute) would be more valid or correct than the other. Or option three. Where there exists a transcendent moral law, grounded in something eternal, good and immutable. Not subject to the changing mores and whims of men or culture. Which would suggest that our best moral ideals are not merely grounded in ethically shifting cultures or are an accident of biology. And don't we all agree that there really are things that are wrong? Wrong no matter what a culture may sanction? And even if we don't always agree what these specific moral wrongs are, we can agree, I think, that such a category exists.
1. The individual.
2. The society (either by the majority or by a politically powerful elite).
3. In a Creator, something like the Christian God, with an immutable, good, moral character.
I don't think most would agree with option one, if you take it to its logical end we would have moral chaos. Option two is better, but logically it would lead to relativism, cultural mores could be quite different. It may be perfectly acceptable to summarily execute political dissents is some societies and not others. And neither choice (to execute or not execute) would be more valid or correct than the other. Or option three. Where there exists a transcendent moral law, grounded in something eternal, good and immutable. Not subject to the changing mores and whims of men or culture. Which would suggest that our best moral ideals are not merely grounded in ethically shifting cultures or are an accident of biology. And don't we all agree that there really are things that are wrong? Wrong no matter what a culture may sanction? And even if we don't always agree what these specific moral wrongs are, we can agree, I think, that such a category exists.
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