http://warincontext.org/2009/03/19/israels-moral-autocracy/ ... with attention to the unseen Wed, 23 May 2012 19:49:31 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://warincontext.org/2009/03/19/israels-moral-autocracy/comment-page-1/#comment-4061 John Merryman Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:21:02 +0000 http://warincontext.org/?p=1530#comment-4061 What are morals? A moral code based on an overarching conflict between good and bad is flawed, because attraction to the beneficial and repulsion of the detrimental is the primordial binary code from which our intellectual process is constructed, not an ideal to be idolized. Between black and white are not just shades of grey, but all the colors of the spectrum. This simplistic view leaves no room for reciprocity, reaction, balance, law of unintended consequences, etc. In fact they are derided as moral relativism. The assumption is that if a little of something is good, a lot of it must be that much better, anything at all bad must be eternally bad and any compromise is weakness. The result is that the extremists are secure in their single mindedness. As for God, the absolute is basis, not apex, so the spiritual absolute would be the essence from which we rise, not an ideal from which we fell. Of course, logic isn't a factor when it comes to religion. What are morals?
A moral code based on an overarching conflict between good and bad is flawed, because attraction to the beneficial and repulsion of the detrimental is the primordial binary code from which our intellectual process is constructed, not an ideal to be idolized. Between black and white are not just shades of grey, but all the colors of the spectrum.
This simplistic view leaves no room for reciprocity, reaction, balance, law of unintended consequences, etc. In fact they are derided as moral relativism.
The assumption is that if a little of something is good, a lot of it must be that much better, anything at all bad must be eternally bad and any compromise is weakness. The result is that the extremists are secure in their single mindedness.
As for God, the absolute is basis, not apex, so the spiritual absolute would be the essence from which we rise, not an ideal from which we fell.
Of course, logic isn’t a factor when it comes to religion.

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