Habitual readers of this blog know that I have been pointing to Dennis Prager’s series on Judeo-Christian values all this year—not to convert you into what liberals like to call a right-wing nutjob or a freakishly moronic and stupid “neocon”, but actually just because intelligent people find this stuff interesting. The aforementioned liberals never read this stuff, and they are not, in fact, very intelligent. Coincidence? I think not.
Plus I love the series. And I am a true believer. And I believe Canadians desperately need this information.
Here’s Part XI of his series—and for those who don’t know, the series is really just an occasional part of his regular column-writing at Townhall. He made a new year’s resolution to help people understand Judeo-Christian values—so that the layman could understand—and non-religious people as well as the religious would benefit.
This one is about moral absolutes versus moral relativism—which coincidentally is something I refer to a lot in my writing.
Nothing more separates Judeo-Christian values from secular values than the question of whether morality—what is good or evil—is absolute or relative. In other words, is there an objective right or wrong, or is right or wrong a matter of personal opinion?
In the Judeo-Christian value system, God is the source of moral values and therefore what is moral and immoral transcends personal or societal opinion. Without God, each society or individual makes up its or his/her moral standards. But once individuals or societies become the source of right and wrong, right and wrong, good and evil, are merely adjectives describing one’s preferences. This is known as moral relativism, and it is the dominant attitude toward morality in modern secular society.
Moral relativism means that murder, for example, is not objectively wrong; you may feel it’s wrong, but it is no more objectively wrong than your feeling that some music is awful renders that music objectively awful. It’s all a matter of personal feeling. That is why in secular society people are far more prone to regard moral judgments as merely feelings. Children are increasingly raised to ask the question, “How do you feel about it?” rather than, “Is it right or wrong?”
[… Read the rest (2 minutes). Plus there is an archive of all his writing so you can catch up too if you want!…]
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