Replies

u: "...individual rights in their proper context..."

uh huh. Cite me the case of an "absolute" right in "proper context" such that no other right or difficulty can overcome it for any reason whatsoever.

u: I don't cite any human right in the absolute, only in terms of how man should regard one another and what we should or should not do with each other. In each case, there are limits to our rights. For one example: society needn't allow a serial killer to live (and his execution takes away all the rights of his earthly rights).

God is the absolute. He calls for our regard for Him to be both our highest regard and to permeate all aspects of our lives. In His honesty, integrity, and consistency, He provides us the way to live, even though He has had to separate Himself from Himself for a time, suffering pain we will never comprehend, in order to do so. He has related thusly to man throughout our history and we have recorded it.

Since He has continued to be willing to suffer our earthly lives, whether or not we accept Him, he gives us the grace and mercy of instructing us in how He regards us, how we are to regard Him, and how we are to regard each other. The thematic allowances we receive from Him teach us how we are to treat each other and are what we tend to call "rights." That is not to be confused with our being entitled to anything, in and of ourselves.

The inspired text that God provides us (the Bible, not others) tells us that toward the beginning of creation, sinners have been veiled by a powerful fallen spirit who has seen to our corruption, so that unless we accept God (through the Way, Truth, and Life He offers, in order to know Himself) we do not perceive enough to relationally know God. "Objectivists" use this veil as the material they clutch for a security blanket, covering their eyes so that they can ignore God's moral authority and man's utter unrighteousness without accepting His fullest mercy and grace.

All can turn to God, though, for as long as they live on earth anyway, but only if they are willing to turn to Him in need.

What can you say is absolute? On what grounds?

What can you say is absolute? On what grounds?

Well, that post made my head spin. A little more concrete, and little less nebulous scattergunning, if you don't mind.

I got sensory impressions, I got numbers out of my oscilloscope, and I have a means of working out what they probably imply through sharing data with others and reaching conclusions others can verify.

This seems to be sufficient to get bread on the table, juice moving through the circuits, and me down to the courthouse when jury duty comes up. The need for an "absolute", whatever that means in the abstract, about anything doesn't seem to arise. The numbers and my senses tell me as much as I need to know to get around without bruising myself, and taking Wittgenstein's advice, about that which I know nothing, having detected nothing with my senses or my oscilloscope, I intend to remain mute.