Are You Absolutely Sure?
The undercurrent to yesterday's rant about cheating actually goes back some 30 to 40 years. It began with the assertion that there are no moral absolutes, that each person must decide for him or herself what is right and what is wrong. Therefore, if it is left up to each individual, it becomes amazingly simple to justify cheating, lying, stealing, hurting others, and doing anything that brings about pleasure or produces power.
We are rightfully shocked when one person injures another for the sport of it. Or when upper-middle-class teenagers commit armed robbery for the adrenalin rush it gives them. Or how about an ignored or harassed student who carries a gun to school to take revenge. Each of these instances are real and each has been repeated too many times.
Yet our schools teach, and society reinforces, that each person should choose what is right or wrong for him or herself. This is the result.
It's been suggested that the liberal thinking promoting this philosophy was really advocating that there were no moral sexual absolutes. What they wanted was justification for a promiscuous existence — and without guilt. However, to assert that there are no sexual moral absolutes, but that all other moral issues are absolute, is illogical and nonsensical. Therefore, to justify indiscriminate sexual behavior, their argument needed to extend itself to all moral issues, be it sex, cheating, lying, stealing, or killing.
What we got was a quagmire of moral confusion and anarchy that has permeated our culture and threatened our future. I know that it's not popular these days to claim that there are moral absolutes, but the alternative is the slippery slope we are on towards mayhem and chaos.
We are rightfully shocked when one person injures another for the sport of it. Or when upper-middle-class teenagers commit armed robbery for the adrenalin rush it gives them. Or how about an ignored or harassed student who carries a gun to school to take revenge. Each of these instances are real and each has been repeated too many times.
Yet our schools teach, and society reinforces, that each person should choose what is right or wrong for him or herself. This is the result.
It's been suggested that the liberal thinking promoting this philosophy was really advocating that there were no moral sexual absolutes. What they wanted was justification for a promiscuous existence — and without guilt. However, to assert that there are no sexual moral absolutes, but that all other moral issues are absolute, is illogical and nonsensical. Therefore, to justify indiscriminate sexual behavior, their argument needed to extend itself to all moral issues, be it sex, cheating, lying, stealing, or killing.
What we got was a quagmire of moral confusion and anarchy that has permeated our culture and threatened our future. I know that it's not popular these days to claim that there are moral absolutes, but the alternative is the slippery slope we are on towards mayhem and chaos.
Posted by Peter DeHaan at 3/28/2008 3:35 PM 
Categories: Observation, Serious
Tags: moral absolutes Peter DeHaan blog author Peter DeHaan Peter DeHaan Musings Musings of Peter DeHaan
Categories: Observation, Serious
Tags: moral absolutes Peter DeHaan blog author Peter DeHaan Peter DeHaan Musings Musings of Peter DeHaan
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