It is true, there is an unmistakable divide. At first glance, it looks political with left wing liberals on one side and right wing conservatives on the other. However, I think that political divide is symptomatic of an underlying much deeper divide and that is the one that is difficult to cross and that won't heal. On the one side are those who think that their own mind is the measure of all, there is nothing beyond us, and that death is the end. These people don't go to church, except for social reasons and comprise the core of the left. On the other side are those who have some sense or intuition that they are not the measure of all things, that there is something beyond us, greater than us, whence we came, and to which we will return. They may be Christians, Hindus, whatever, and comprise the core of the right. Throughout history, there has been little dialogue from one side of this divide to the other, but a good deal of fighting across it. The most lucid account of the divide itself is contained in seven dialogues called "Alciphron, or The Minute Philosopher" written in Providence, RI, in the 1730's by the Irish philosopher Bishop George Berkeley (after whom, ironically, Berkeley University was named). There is nothing in today's newspapers concerning this left-right divide that is not laid there in those dialogues. Nothing has changed and nothing ever will with regard to it.
Could you either post here or freepmail me with info about those dialogues? I could Google but my computer just got back from being fixed, and it'll take me a while to set it up with virus/spyware protection (I'm a complete techno-idiot) so I can't go anywhere except FR for a while.
I am considering starting a pinglist on the topic of moral absolutes and this sounds right up my alley. I already do a pinglist (with another freeper) about the homosexual agenda, but I want one that is wider in scope.
Freegards,
lj