VirtuaLife

Was driving back home after Work Service placement some days ago and happened to flick the radio to Nova for some bouncy music. Instead what I got was a talk on… relationships.

Charlie (self-named) was talking about letting her partner sleep around. To paraphrase Charlie… “I can’t control him, and I don’t want to be hurt not knowing what he’s doing, so as long as he tells me about it, I’m okay with it.” To further put an interesting twist on matters, Charlie herself prefers not to sleep around.

I’m not sure how the conversation started, but I believe it had something to do with one of the talkshow hosts who was asserting that there are no real rights or wrongs. Interesting assertion, because that brings us right to the heart of morality, and whether it is relative or absolute.

Evolutionary science either purports a state of no morality – spontaneously we arose, eventually we’ll die, and there’s no rules in between – or an anthropic, subjective morality – what we do and what we believe is ingrained due to a need or desire to survive – but never a position of absolute morality. Because believing in absolute morality confers the honour of human existence to something that preceded it… something that set the standards long before we could humans do so ourselves.

That something... is someone. That someone... is our salvation.

In a Godless, secular society, Charlie’s views are perfectly justified and the talkshow advocate is right in saying that the customs and norms of our culture will soon be supplanted by a newer, more liberated one. Indeed, the Australian constitution is based on Christian beliefs, and in a society that is increasingly un-Australian, that constitution is outdated and inappropriate. Kudos to Chris for pointing out that only 7% of Australians attend church service weekly, and another 14% attend it monthly. Might I hazard the controversial suggestion that only a fragment of those who even attend the physical church understand what it means to be Christian?

ONe thing I take out of this is that I have many secular friends who do not believe in sleeping around or other such… liberties; friends who believe in, without saying it in so many words, a relative morality. Friends who support and often ardently defend their beliefs without realising that they’re already straddling the fence of disbelief.

Many aspects of human nature demonstrate absolute morality. For example, intentionally killing a human baby without rhyme or reason is a reprehensible act. Violating someone physically without consent, particularly in a sexual manner, is both vile and detestable. Asking somebody for their opinion and then not accounting for that opinion at all is a most outspoken form of insincerity. Seeing suffering or injustice and not doing anything about it is wrong. Universally. All of these ‘cause-and-effect’ scenarios are universal. With the exception that a particular culture creates rules that justify immoral acts, they are universal.

The Bible says that we were ALL created with an aspect of God in us. People who believe and people who don’t, we are all reflections of an Intelligent Designer - our God - who left His fingerprints over all our design. People can question it, and people will fight it, or find ways to work around it as Charlie did, but at the end of that path is only despair and loneliness. I can’t say I envy her… choices.

It’s not pretty.