Astronomy and Politics Through the Lens of Epistemology
How do We Know What We Know?
What is Our Method of Evaluating Truth?

Take a look at the text of Mussolini below.  Read it well.  In terms of philosophy in public discourse, America is precisely at this same point of moral and philosophical relativism.

 

Benito Mussolini on Moral Relativism [1]

 

“Everything I have said and done in the last years is relativism, by intuition.  From the fact that all ideologies are of equal value, that all ideologies are mere fictions, the modern relativist infers that everybody has the right to create for himself his own ideology, and to attempt to enforce it with all the energy of which he is capable.  If relativism signifies contempt for fixed categories, and men who claim to be the bearers of an objective Immoral truth, then there is nothing more relativistic than Fascism.”

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On this American subject, I do not care if the reader is an Evangelical, Catholic, Jew or Mormon, we cannot allow this to happen again in American PUBLIC DISCOURSE without each of our faiths giving a clearly defined public answer that everyone will clearly understand, by some yet to be determined means.  Of course, I am referring to those people of faith whose central moral beliefs are exclusively derived by their respective books of Scripture.  Americans of faith need to have a national discussion on this!      

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I am expressing this issue of public discourse in multi-faith terms, not because I am a universalist (I AM NOT!!) - but because, despite organizational pronouncements, Catholics, Jews, Mormons and Evangelicals have failed to publicly answer relativism independently, AS RECENT HISTORY HAS DEMONSTRATED!  So, I am initially bringing up this subject as a need to address this problem as Americans of Faith in a much broader and public sense.  Although a lot of Americans of faith are preoccupied with the recent election, the recent trend in American discourse, to be able to create our own individual moral reality is where our problem is.  In that regard, common to all these faiths in America is this passage in the Old Testament or Jewish Tanakh which is a quote from our God, Adonai.

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if My people, upon whom My name is called, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land (2 Chron 7:14 [JPS 1917]).

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Note: humbling ourselves means accepting values that transcend whatever political beliefs we have acquired as Americans.  This means submitting our beliefs in faith to His values, not our own.  So, our beliefs must be under the understanding of His rule in our lives.  Yet many relativists might be offended at a comparison of their beliefs to Mussolini because, in their minds, they would never impose their values on others. 

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Yet we have witnessed supposed anti-fascist groups like ANTIFA violently attacking all members of our society so as to impose their interpretation of TOLERANCE on everyone.  Meanwhile our government has philosophically partnered with them to routinely impose its secular derived values on all peoples of faith.  The central problem with relativism is that this philosophy has no internal rules that would prevent a Mussolini like ideological leader from “enforcing it with all the energy of which he is capable”. 

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Yet many relativists would also object to comparisons to a Mussolini on the basis of a popular notion that the nature of man is naturally good.  Now if man were naturally good, why would Mussolinis, Pol Pots, Stalins, Hitlers, Lenins, Kim Jong-ils and a host of others, have suddenly popped up in the 20th century all over the place???  For that reason, it should be obvious to anyone with an IQ above 2 that man is not inherently good in that sense!  Therefore, there are no rules inherent in the philosophy of relativism that would prevent development of such totalitarian states!  Included in those historical warnings is the government that assumed power in the US in early in 2021!

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Note: the image above is a snapshot of a brilliant young Catholic commentator on the much maligned “One America News Network”, Kara McKinney.  If you would like to see her video address on this click here.