The widespread abandonment of Christianity in the West is leaving a moral vacuum.
In pop-morality of Hollywood heroes, there comes a time when it is right to kill the bad guy. This concept takes the sanctity of human life to a level that demeans it by destroying justice. The left of politics is trying to develop political correctness as the new morality- the best of humanism.
The Admiral sends Kirk assassinate the murderer Kahn. Playing him however because it is as well that he captures, rather than kills Kahn. Spock declares this is immoral to execute him without trial and that they ought to capture Kahn and return him to Starfleet for trial. Undermining the thought experiment and attempts to justify, ad hoc, the decision to spare Kahn, this is the plot's twist. The reality of the thought experiment is seen in real life in the capture and trial of Saddam Hussein, and the hunting down and execution of Osama Bin Laden.
Kirk is an eyewitness of Kahn's unprovoked attack that leads to the death of Kirk's mentor, Admiral Pike. Kahn makes no pretense of innocence, but merely attempts to justify his actions as retaliation for wrongs done to him, In comparison with Bin Laden. Kirk is under no misapprehensions of Kahn's guilt. In the movie, Kahn later crashes a starship into the sky scrapers of San Fransisco in an attack not dissimilar to the World Trade Center. In the end, Kahn is captured and not tried or executed, but placed back into cryogenic hibernation.
A behaviour that is believed to have stemmed from a misguided application of the principle of the sanctity of life is exhibited in many TV shows, the hero, through some moral consideration, passes up the opportunity to kill the bad guy, where there is no mistaking guilt, and the hero is the appropriate agent to administer justice.
Since jettisoning Christianity as the majority morality of the western world, Utilitarianism has been limping.
Some sort of Eastern / Buddhist / Hindu / New Age conception of reincarnation and the value of all life is present in our milieu. But it condemns one to vegetarianism, and is based upon some other religious concepts that most Westerners find hard to credit. And so we are left with a loose idea of the sanctity of human life. So we cling to it, emphasizing it to the exclusion of all else.
No longer could one really countenance the central tenant of Post Modernism that moral truth was relative as a newspaper article recently suggested that the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center marked the end of Post Modernism.
One comes up against the justice of God If one bases morality on the existence and moral character of God. Genesis 9:6 "Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind."
What is to be done with the Osama Bin Ladens of the world, if one bases morality on the sanctity of human life alone?
What it believes is one of the things the West needs to make up their minds about.
In pop-morality of Hollywood heroes, there comes a time when it is right to kill the bad guy. This concept takes the sanctity of human life to a level that demeans it by destroying justice. The left of politics is trying to develop political correctness as the new morality- the best of humanism.
The Admiral sends Kirk assassinate the murderer Kahn. Playing him however because it is as well that he captures, rather than kills Kahn. Spock declares this is immoral to execute him without trial and that they ought to capture Kahn and return him to Starfleet for trial. Undermining the thought experiment and attempts to justify, ad hoc, the decision to spare Kahn, this is the plot's twist. The reality of the thought experiment is seen in real life in the capture and trial of Saddam Hussein, and the hunting down and execution of Osama Bin Laden.
Kirk is an eyewitness of Kahn's unprovoked attack that leads to the death of Kirk's mentor, Admiral Pike. Kahn makes no pretense of innocence, but merely attempts to justify his actions as retaliation for wrongs done to him, In comparison with Bin Laden. Kirk is under no misapprehensions of Kahn's guilt. In the movie, Kahn later crashes a starship into the sky scrapers of San Fransisco in an attack not dissimilar to the World Trade Center. In the end, Kahn is captured and not tried or executed, but placed back into cryogenic hibernation.
A behaviour that is believed to have stemmed from a misguided application of the principle of the sanctity of life is exhibited in many TV shows, the hero, through some moral consideration, passes up the opportunity to kill the bad guy, where there is no mistaking guilt, and the hero is the appropriate agent to administer justice.
Since jettisoning Christianity as the majority morality of the western world, Utilitarianism has been limping.
Some sort of Eastern / Buddhist / Hindu / New Age conception of reincarnation and the value of all life is present in our milieu. But it condemns one to vegetarianism, and is based upon some other religious concepts that most Westerners find hard to credit. And so we are left with a loose idea of the sanctity of human life. So we cling to it, emphasizing it to the exclusion of all else.
No longer could one really countenance the central tenant of Post Modernism that moral truth was relative as a newspaper article recently suggested that the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center marked the end of Post Modernism.
One comes up against the justice of God If one bases morality on the existence and moral character of God. Genesis 9:6 "Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind."
What is to be done with the Osama Bin Ladens of the world, if one bases morality on the sanctity of human life alone?
What it believes is one of the things the West needs to make up their minds about.
About the Author:
Want to know more about hunting and social issues? Why not try David Greentree's new book, 'Tom Grafton Vs The Environmentalists'.
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