Fw: [Vision2020] What is relative moralism

[Art Deco]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Art Deco" <deco@moscow.com>
To: <Aldoussoma@aol.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2004 7:15 PM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] What is relative moralism


> For the interested both UI and WSU offer courses in Ethics via the
> philosophy departments.  It takes only a short while to see how many
> different systems there are of justifying ethical beliefs.  Taking an
ethics
> course can be, for the open minded, a real adventure.
>
> Wayne Fox
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: <Aldoussoma@aol.com>
> To: <bubbajones9763@hotmail.com>; <vision2020@moscow.com>
> Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2004 6:56 PM
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] What is relative moralism
>
>
> >
> > Forum Members:
> >
> > Modern science has proven that there is no one time for the whole
> universe, only local times.  Einstein's relativity theory in fact states
> that time travel into the future is possible.  If you travel fast enough
far
> enough away from Earth and return, you can return in your life time to
find
> all your contemporaries dead and witness a future on earth you would never
> have otherwise.
> >
> > The time traveler would age normally, but a clock on his space ship
would
> read a different time than an identical clock on earth that was set
> identically and left behind awaiting the time travelers return, even with
> both clocks keeping perfect time.  This is because each clock due to the
> relative speed they are traveling to each other would in fact be in
> different local times.
> >
> > A friend of mine once had the time dilation equation from relativity
> written on a tiny piece of paper laying around their house just for
> amusement, I guess, or to puzzle curious visitors, or perhaps to remind
them
> of the relative nature of time.
> >
> > What this has to do with relativism in morality?  Well, maybe, if we are
> all in our local time zones, none of which exactly correspond in the sense
> of a universal time, then perhaps we are also in our own local moral
zones,
> each of which does not have a universal reference moral standard, or
> "clock."
> >
> > People often use the laws of the government to guide their moral
actions,
> but governments vary in what conduct they deem illegal, and during the
> Nuremburg trials the fact that Nazi war criminals were following the laws
of
> Germany at that time was used a defense.  Government's thus sometimes
appear
> to be in their own moral "time zones" that are not universal.  To convict
> Nazi war criminals the Nuremberg courts had to appeal to a more universal
> source of moral codes than just the laws of the state, using what is
> sometimes call "natural ethical law."
> >
> > Some people think that the only way to have universal unchanging ethical
> standards is via revelation from a God, thus the appeal of some forms of
> religion.  Of course if your ultimate moral standards come from religion,
> then how can you sensibly enforce a separation of church and state?  And
> differing "Gods" give differing moral standards.  This debate continues,
> even here in Moscow, Idaho.
> >
> > But really the discoveries of modern science, like relativity and
> evolution, though they often are credited with up-ending universal moral
> standards, might have nothing to say on the issues of Ethics.  It still
> remains possible there is a God who issues universal ethical standards
that
> apply across the whole universe, while relativity and evolution remain
valid
> scientific principles according to how the universe operates, both for
> living and non-living events.
> >
> > A good case can be made that science says nothing about how people
should
> behave in a moral sense, although science informs us of many of the
> consequences of our actions that can increase the knowledge we have that
we
> can use to influence moral equations.
> >
> > Ted
> >
> > _____________________________________________________
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> >
>