Moral relativism … what a conundrum!!  If all opinions or perspectives are to be given equal weight, what do you do when there is disagreement with serious consequences for those who disagree?  How do you work it out ?

And if my opinion is that moral relativism is wrong ethically, how does the person who holds that it is a correct ethical stance explain that he is not giving my perspective equal weight to his?

 According to moral relativists, there is no standard by which to decide except the perspective of the individual. In practice,  the resolution almosts always resides in acceptance of the perspective of the one with more money, power, or influence. But, then, that is the objection to relativism…no objective standard by which to measure right and wrong.

Funny how moral relativism becomes insignificant to the relativist with a personal agenda…money and power and retaliation then become the prevailing perspective and the sincere perspective of the victim becomes “wrong”… seems like “might makes right” overpowers the professed belief in equal value of the perspectives of individuals who disagree.

The harms can be very great.  They can even lead to Cammy’s Solution.

And from the book I am currently reading:

 ”Cammy has wanted only what she possessed now: a veterinary practice and a life with animals, a life of service to the innocent of the Earth, to those who could not lie because they could not speak, who did not envy or covet or steal, who never betrayed…

‎From Breathless by Dean Koontz

After several months I am here again…hopefully without interruption this time. Facebook entries were getting longer and longer so I take that as a message to take the discussions over here.

When you really think about it, what is a promise? Do you have to say “I promise that…” to make it so.  Or can it be that you have only mentioned or implied that you will do something at some future time.  So, are promises commitments?  Always?  Sometimes?  It depends on the circumstances? If you say, I am going to come over to your house tomorrow morning for coffee and a chat, is that a kind of commitment?  Have you created an expectation that you must honor or be considered a non-promise keeper? Or is there some kind of unwritten social convention that tells us when we are to believe such informal statements of intention and when not?

Do you think that choice is the turning point for a beginning?  What about non-human choice? Do plants or animals make choices that change their lives, our lives, or the universe?  Or could it be said that their beginnings or changes of direction are all in their divine programming?

Did the world ever have a beginning?  Theists agree that God had no beginning.  But what about the material world?  Will it have an end?  Or has it … and will it … simply continue as a stream of events with new directions?

And so to begin.  But the question is: Is there ever a beginning? Or is there only a stepping in the stream as Hermann Hesse proposes in Siddartha?

Sunshine Clearing is always waiting — here and over there – everywhere and forever, I guess.  It’s that special place where the relentless dark is forgotten and even memories of the interior cave — so carefully designed for navigation without sight – dissipate.  In the brilliant surprise of gentle sunshine I sometimes understand — whatever  I am in place to understand.  Unexpectedly I see – and I know.  If I am lucky I am even gifted with  joy and laughter.  These are surely the best. 

Join me in this clearing. . . share your first moments in sunshine. Together I hope we can experience more  ….