Posted on 10/20/2009 7:03:01 AM PDT by Kaslin
"Of course I dislike the Nazis. But who is to say they're morally wrong?" The shocking statement was made by a college student in New York, as documented by author Kerby Anderson in a much-needed book, "Christian Ethics in Plain Language". The professor of the class, Anderson reports, "....said that he has never met a student who denied the Holocaust happened. But he also reported that 10 to 20 percent of his students cannot bring themselves to say that killing millions of people is wrong."
This is certainly an indictment of how modern society has made a false religion out of "tolerance" and how we adults have failed to teach that there are, indeed, moral absolutes. What evidence more strongly proves the dangerous folly of moral relativism than young people who can't distinguish between learning to "tolerate" what they merely "dislike" and recognizing what is, on its face, evil? We're in real trouble when even the most egregious evils can't be named as such.
Recent surveys that reveal a growing number of youth believe that lying and adultery are acceptable behaviors indicate that we are headed for serious trouble as a society. We've become so obsessed with what is "politically correct" and the need not to "offend" that we are failing to teach the principles that every civil society must uphold in order to survive. If basic relational concepts such as fidelity and honesty cannot be recognized as bedrock principles then how on earth do we expect the next generation to defend the principles of freedom and justice?
Some truths are supposed to be self-evident. Yet even our Founding Fathers saw the need to clearly state them as such. Dr. Jeff Myers, a recognized expert in leadership development who has trained some two million people in mentoring and world view understanding warns, "We live in what may be one of the first generations in Western Civilization that is not intentionally preparing to pass its values to the next generation."
One great resource to help you train the next generation are the materials from Dr. Myers' organization, Passing the Baton. At www.passingthebaton.org you can order a complete kit that will enable you to mentor and equip young people with the ability to develop a strong moral compass. As their website states, "The mission of Passing the Baton is to move leader development to the forefront of the cultural agenda by identifying and mobilizing one million adults to personally equip the next generation of culture-shaping leaders."You may also wish to explore other materials by Dr. Myers including his coaching curriculum, "Understanding the Times", which is used in many private schools around the nation.
Kerby Anderson's, "Christian Ethics in Plain Language," is also a terrific resource that provides the Judeo-Christian foundations on a variety of ethical issues.
The book is ideal for our time-pressed world. Take the chapter on abortion: In only 14 pages, Anderson gives us a history of this abhorrent practice, a brief description of the various abortion methods, and an array of arguments against the killing -- biblical, philosophical and medical. Readers also get a section titled "Answers to Pro-Abortion Rhetoric" to help them discern when someone is trying to deceive through the use of clever words.
Parents will find the chapter on sexual ethics particularly helpful. It includes information on teen sexuality, school based clinics, and sex education.
Anderson, the national director of Probe Ministries International, is well equipped to help develop the critical thinking skills that our young people desperately need. An accomplished writer and co-host of the popular radio show, "Point of View", Anderson knows how to communicate effectively and offers many resources at www.probe.org.
It takes but one generation for a nation to implode from believing lies and practicing moral relativism. Our children need us to deliberately guide and teach them the truth that will keep them free.
And at the same time you have atheists running an ad campaign in the same city claiming they can be "good" without God. At least this student grasps the impossibility of calling things good/evil without a belief in a transcendant moral absolute.
This is certainly an indictment of how modern society has made a false religion out of “tolerance”
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This type of tolerance and political correctness go hand in hand.
Expect many of these to be members of 0bama's Civilian Security Force.
I am saddened, but not surprised that some folks can't muster up any condemnation for Hitler. After all, he "only" killed 6 million Jews.
It’s not just atheists who deny moral absolutes nowadays. A lot of young Christians have it in their heads that Jesus came to repeal God’s Commandments, and that salvation through faith means you can sin all you want without consequence.
Those kids want to work for Obama.
But somehow “intolerance” manages to be absolutely wrong.
STOP THE PLANET!
I want to get off!
Who gets to define what is good, moral, charitable, evil, etc.? You? Me? MTV? A Saddam? A Stalin?
To ancient Aztecs - cutting out the still beating heart of a human sacrifices (including children) was the highest order of good.
To a large percent of Muslims - killing, raping and enslaving infidels is the highest order of good in Islam.
To Hindus - Attacking, ignoring, prejudicing against and letting die for people in lower order castes is perfectly alright.
To certain Pacific Tribes - eating your enemy was the highest form of good.
And I could go on for pages...
The works we think are good works in the west are from a Christian viewpoint:
Matthew 22:37-40 — Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
And Jesus also said “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” (Luke 6:31; Luke 10:27 (affirming of Moses) and Matthew 7:12)
But by no means has this “philosophy” been accepted the world over as “good or moral.” Not by a long shot.
What makes murder inherently wrong (to Christians) is not that it feels wrong, but that a transcendent Creator to whom we are answerable commands: “Thou shalt not murder.” What makes kindness to others inherently right (to Christians) is not that human reason says so, but that God does: “Love thy neighbor as thyself; I am the Lord.”
What is “good or evil” without God? Without any footing for moral actions - anything can be rationalized as good or evil. You can just make it up as you go along. Good actions can be whatever society thinks it is with the popular culture at the time. If that be in Nazi Germany or Pol Pot’s Cambodia or North Korea - that means doing “good” is slaughtering millions of people and sending millions more into misery. But, by their own human standards at the time in history, they were all doing good.
You grew up and live in a country founded in Judeo-Christian values, so it may seem obvious to you what is “good.” But that is due to the Judeo-Christian influences on you (even if you don’t believe in God or have never been to Church). To others without that kind of influence, doing “good” can be radically different.
For instance, we are also a country that for all intents and purposes, allows abortion, for any reason, at any time, including up to 1 sec before birth (partial birth abortions). I have no doubt that 200 years from now, future Americans will wonder how we could have let such evil go on and did nothing to stop it for so long (a lot like we look back on slavery).
But all the “cool” people are pro-choice - so it is good.
Regards,
2banana
Exactly! “There are absolutely no absolutes” is the battle cry of the jackals. “We will not tolerate intolerance!”
In short, these 'Christians' aren't Christians at all, if they are consistent. :-(
I think many Americans, young and old, have become modern-day “deists”.
They believe that God exists, even that Jesus exists, but they don’t feel any particular compulsion to live their lives according to God’s standards as given in scripture. God created things, set the universe in order, and then He let it work out on its own.
They view God as being “out there somewhere”, but He has no real impact on their daily lives. They see no reason to be concerned about violating God’s moral and spiritual standards.
Many of these types go to church and call themselves Christians, but continue to live immoral lifestyles, seemingly oblivious to the contradiction and hypocrisy that they are practicing. Their world view is pretty much secular, yet they still believe in God.
Kind of a mixture of deism and “practical atheism”
Exactly! How can one random collection of chemical reactions, on the basis of "good" or "evil," critique with any positional superiority the actions of another random collection of chemical reactions existing randomly in a random universe? Such an existence and world view only permits random, relative, and individualized perceptions of good or evil. Keep in mind, Darwin's "Origin of Species" was fully titled, "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life." In Darwin's world, Nazis are just part of the process of natural selection. And by today's (warped) standard, calling them wrong is racist. An encounter with the sovereign Creator God of the Universe will answer the question "Who is to say they're morally wrong?"
In a world without G_d, there is no moral absolutes and only the chaos of dog-eat-dog. Not a world I like or hope for.
People such as whoever said this deserve to end up against the wall when some thug they couldn’t bear to call wrong puts them there.
Frankly, most of America deserves the train wreck that is coming, as does most of the rest of the world.
The students are correct. IF you accept the idea of moral relativism, then Hitler’s approach to dealing with the world is not inherently any more or less moral than Mother Theresa’s.
I’ve always been intrigued by the Star Trek Vulcan salue, “May you live long and prosper.”
Vulcans are supposed to be driven by pure logic, yet the desirability of neither of these wishes can be derived from logic. Reason can be used to expound on and apply moral principles. It is incapable of developing them from scratch.
This entire idea that we have no place to call the Nazis wrong stems from the idea that there is no personal moral law. C.S. Lewis talks about the moral law as evidence for God-for if there is a moral law, where did we get the idea of our morality?
Anywho... that was a bit of background, and my question to post modernists is this:
What if the state were to take you, throw you in prison, torture you, and take all your money and give it to televangelists and the next Republican presidential candidate?
That’s right, you would be angry. So, if there is no personal moral law what right do you have to criticize being maltreated by the state? If morality is just a set of preference statements, couldn’t your boss fire you- even for wearing the wrong color of shirt?
The point here being that there is an undeniable moral law that is written upon the hearts of all of humanity. This is evident in how we know we ought to treat each other.
Taking the life one person is, per se, no more or less morally wrong than taking the life of 100 persons - it depends upon the reasons for and circumstances under which their lives are taken.
For example: Executing 100 convicted murderers sitting on Death Row is much to be preferred to snuffing out the life of one unborn child.
Regards,
“claiming they can be “good” without God”
I know some atheists who *are* very good, moral and honest people.
They will not, however, continue to be ‘atheists’ for very long, once they have shuffled off their mortal coils.
And 7 million gentiles of various persuasions.
People frequently seem to forget the gentiles.
“Nazis. I hate those guys. . . “
- Indiana Jones
How about my Dad, my Uncles and a whole generation of Americans with a bunch of lead and steel, that's who a$$hat.
Very true. But that's only because the 6 million Jews were 1/3 of the Jews on the Planet. If He killed 1/2 a billion Caucasian Gentiles, then we could make a fair comparison.
“May you live long and prosper.” Sounds pretty logical to me, I think most people want to do exactly that. It sounds a lot more logical than, “May you be miserable and die young”, assuming of course that you are speaking to a friend and not an enemy.
My point is that such desires are derived from something other than logic.
Logic cannot explain why long life or wealth are good things.
Logic cannot explain why long life or wealth are good things.
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I thought Ayn Rand did a pretty good job of it.
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