[extropy-chat] In defense of moral relativism

The Avantguardian avantguardian2020 at yahoo.com
Fri Apr 29 21:42:15 UTC 2005


--- Giu1i0 Pri5c0 <pgptag at gmail.com> wrote:
> I don't see what point you are making. Assuming you
> are referring to
> the last paragraph quoted as a non-sequitur, let me
> rephrase it:
> History shows that the convinction of being the sole
> depository of the
> Truth *always* leads to mass murder. For me, this is
> a good enough
> reason to keep as far from the Truth as I can.

I feel your pain, Guilio, the problem is no matter how
far you distance yourself from the notion that you
embody truth, there will be someone else who is firmly
convinced that they are the sole arbirter of truth. So
whereas you have made the world safe from you, you
have not made the world safe from these guys. 
     A further complication of the problem is that the
"Champions of Truth" as you call them have all decided
in some oxymoronic way to team up with each other
despite the fact they champion different truths and
wage memetic war on relativists like yourself. Thus
you have flag-waving Southern Baptist fundies teaming
up with the Catholic old-guard to try to illegalize
homosexual partnerships for example. Thank God, the
Muslim fundies are still at war with the other (Xtian
and Jewish) fundies because that will keep secularists
and atheists from being gassed for a while. I wonder
what then? Will the Champions of Truth then duke it
out to see who is the champion of "real truth"?
      To make it stranger too there are "Truths" that
don't have champions that are still Truth -like the
Law of Karma. i.e. that actions have consequences.
This Truth bears similarities to the actual physics of
the universe as embodied by the formulation of
newton's third law of mechanics or causality in
general. Yet you won't see Buddhists launching
crusades to crush the infidels, because that would be
bad Karma. ;)
  

The Avantguardian 
is 
Stuart LaForge
alt email: stuart"AT"ucla.edu

"The surest sign of intelligent life in the universe is that they haven't attempted to contact us." 
-Bill Watterson

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