Yes, my real name is Sam, actually it’s Samuel, but everybody calls me Sam.
After re-reading and re-evaluating my post I think I need to clarify the statements you had trouble with Jason. First of all I think that both statements defiantly border on some kind of relativism. The second was not worded as best as it could have been.
I don’t mean that we can both have differing values that are equally true. Since both sets of values are corrupted by sin and are not all-good or all-bad we cannot simply impose our values on others because of a majority of people in America say they’re Christians. Though America may be considered a Christian nation we in many ways are very un-Christian. I worry about what I see happening to many nations who have been westernizing, these nations seem to get all of our bad traits and loose many of their good traits in trade.
I have always taken relativism as a mixed bag. On one hand I see it as a way of trivializing all beliefs and denying that there is actual truth. But on the other hand I see a limited sort of relativism as a good way of empathizing with other cultures. By at least accepting their values as worth something and not writing them off right away we have a chance to see the good in them. I guess that I don’t think relativism is right or good but I see good things that come from thinking in a slightly relativistic mindset.
Relativism has made the difference between always blindly supporting a war effort against an “axis of evil” to trying to understand their views and why they have them before we forcibly change them. It’s the difference between seeing terrorists as evil and unjustified or as misguided men made in the image of God.
I guess another reason I have such a problem completely vilifying terrorists is because I see our American forefathers as not far off from terrorists, in their day at least. Did the colonials have just cause to start a war and cede from Britain? Did they feel oppressed by a corrupt world power? They didn?t get heard until they preformed terrorist acts and riots. Is the current situation similar?
SamIam
May 05 2003
02:38 pm
Yes, my real name is Sam, actually it’s Samuel, but everybody calls me Sam.
After re-reading and re-evaluating my post I think I need to clarify the statements you had trouble with Jason. First of all I think that both statements defiantly border on some kind of relativism. The second was not worded as best as it could have been.
I don’t mean that we can both have differing values that are equally true. Since both sets of values are corrupted by sin and are not all-good or all-bad we cannot simply impose our values on others because of a majority of people in America say they’re Christians. Though America may be considered a Christian nation we in many ways are very un-Christian. I worry about what I see happening to many nations who have been westernizing, these nations seem to get all of our bad traits and loose many of their good traits in trade.
I have always taken relativism as a mixed bag. On one hand I see it as a way of trivializing all beliefs and denying that there is actual truth. But on the other hand I see a limited sort of relativism as a good way of empathizing with other cultures. By at least accepting their values as worth something and not writing them off right away we have a chance to see the good in them. I guess that I don’t think relativism is right or good but I see good things that come from thinking in a slightly relativistic mindset.
Relativism has made the difference between always blindly supporting a war effort against an “axis of evil” to trying to understand their views and why they have them before we forcibly change them. It’s the difference between seeing terrorists as evil and unjustified or as misguided men made in the image of God.
I guess another reason I have such a problem completely vilifying terrorists is because I see our American forefathers as not far off from terrorists, in their day at least. Did the colonials have just cause to start a war and cede from Britain? Did they feel oppressed by a corrupt world power? They didn?t get heard until they preformed terrorist acts and riots. Is the current situation similar?