And it also comes down to empathy, a vital factor which you and everyone
else conveniently ignore. It should be blindingly obvious that an empathy-
based moral system *works*.
>Where government establishes an 'objective' standard of law it is
>still only subjective consensus, as it has nothing that transcends human
>beings.
So what? It's obvious that claiming a transcendent, "objective" standard
doesn't make people behave any better.
>Russell plucks a seemingly 'objective' moral standard out of thin air when
>he makes self-awareness the criterea for abortion.
I didn't pluck it out of thin air, and I didn't claim that it is objective.
However, it is quite consistent and perfectly logical.
>One might ask though,
>whether he applies the same standard to the cattle he presumably eats from
>time to time, and if not, why humans are more important than cattle?
Why do you think so many people are vegetarians? That is one possible
consequence of a "materialist" world-view. In fact, this is something
that I have some internal struggles with, and I have seriously considered
becoming a vegetarian for this reason.
_____________________________________________________________
| Russell Stewart |
| http://www.rt66.com/diamond/ |
|_____________________________________________________________|
| Albuquerque, New Mexico | diamond@rt66.com |
|_____________________________|_______________________________|
2 + 2 = 5, for very large values of 2.