re: #42 Dark_Falcon

Good point. It helps provide a hammer to use of relativists who refuse to acknowledge absolutes. I’m favoriting this post of that purpose.

What I like about the TED talk is pointing out that you can use the rationality that God gave you to solve moral issues when it appears that two moral imperatives are in conflict, and moreover, or perhaps most importantly, you can use facts logic and reason to say that this or that belief really is harmful. It becomes a call to arms to stop being an intellectual and moral wuss. If for instance you say that it is OK for someone to kill his raped daughter to preserve his “family honor”, who are we to judge? If you say that you are contributing to her murder. You have every right to say that is evil and wrong and it really is.

Of necessity, relativism is the enemy of both science and faith.

Where science and faith intersect is by rejecting the notion that nothing is real.

Science and faith deal in absolute principles. Do not let the fact that we have limitations on determining the full details of those principles take away from the fact that we do posit an actual reality to the way things are or cloud the discussion with suggesting that those principles, whatever they actually are, are things that can be negotiated with.

Electrons behave in certain ways. You can’t negotiate with one to make it act like a photon.

Faiths are built on principles too that are not negotiable. For instance the belief that there is actually something that is right or wrong on the first place, is a matter of faith. If you say thus and such is wrong - because it is - or thus and such is right - because it is, it is a statement of faith, in exactly the same way that rejecting that notion is also a statement of faith.