[Aquinasfan]

The claim by "cultural conservatives" that morals are somehow universal is, beyond being just plain wrong,...

Some moral values are consistent among cultures, such as not committing murder, theft, assault, or fraud. They can better be described as "ethics".

This looks like a contradiction to me. All you've done is called "morals," "ethics." In reality, there is no difference.

[steve-b]

This looks like a contradiction to me.

You need to work on your reading comprehension, then. The original post quite clearly separated out a set of "ethics" that is universal to all viable cultures (e.g. prohibitions on theft and assault) from a larger set of "morals", some of which are not universal (e.g. prohibitions on drinking alcohol).

[Fraulein]

St. Thomas Aquinas knew the distinction between morality and ethics. They are *not* necessarily the same thing at all.

[E Rocc]

The claim by "cultural conservatives" that morals are somehow universal is, beyond being just plain wrong,...

Some moral values are consistent among cultures, such as not committing murder, theft, assault, or fraud. They can better be described as "ethics".

This looks like a contradiction to me. All you've done is called "morals," "ethics." In reality, there is no difference.

The distinction between those things seen as universally wrong and those which are not is clear. The former have victims.

-Eric

[tpaine]

The claim by "cultural conservatives" that morals are somehow universal is beyond being just plain wrong,...

Some moral values are consistent among cultures, such as not committing murder, theft, assault, or fraud. They can better be described as "ethics".

"Moral" considerations involving eating, drinking, smoking, entertainment, attire, consensual sex, etc. vary from culture to culture.
In a free nation, it's best for government to butt out of those.
-Eric

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Aquinasfan wrote:
This looks like a contradiction to me.
All you've done is called "morals," "ethics." In reality, there is no difference.

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You ignored his explanation of his view on ethics vs morals.

-- Hardly an ethical way to make a rebuttal, is it?