Men say, "How are we to act, what are we to teach our children, now that we are no longer Christians?" You see, gentlemen, how I would answer that question. You are deceived in thinking that the morality of your father was based on Christianity. On the contrary, Christianity presupposed it. That morality stands exactly where it did; its basis has not been withdrawn, for, in a sense, it never had a basis. The ultimate ethical injunctions have always been premises, never conclusions. Kant was perfectly right on that point at least, the imperative is categorical. Unless the ethical is assumed from the outset, no argument will bring you to it.

I have a sneaky suspicion that they record those hearing aid infomercials at a really low volume.

In his August 1 Breakpoint commentary, Charles Colson said, "Last year, Zogby International took a poll of American college seniors in which 97 percent said that they believed their professors had given them a good education in ethics. But when asked what those professors had taught them, 73 percent responded, "What is right and wrong depends on differences in individual values and cultural diversity." Only a quarter of them said they had learned that there are "clear and uniform standards of right and wrong." Similarly, a reporter for Forbes magazine observed an ethics class at Harvard Business School in which the professor and students discussed case studies but avoided coming to any moral conclusions. Students were graded on how well they could logically defend their position, not on whether their position was actually defensible. The reporter wrote that students in this kind of class, rather than developing moral principles, merely "develop skills enabling them to rationalize anything short of cannibalism."

In a competitive market, compromise - that is, accepting half a loaf - is often essential for survival. But compromise of a basic belief, such as truth or seeking to do what is right, does not result in half a loaf. It ends up being half a baby.... Half a baby is no baby at all. Half a belief is no belief at all. By: Bill Pollard Source: The Soul of The Firm, Harper Business / Zondervan, 1996, pg. 134

The least aggressive chimps are the most subordinate in their group. The exact opposite occurs in humans. The most violent adolescents in America are among the poorest and least powerful in their society because the causes of killing in apes and humans are different. Thus ethical decisions regarding the prevention and punishment of crime should not be based primarily on the scientific facts investigators gather on animals.

As long as members of our society hold different values, each of us will have to acknowledge the legitimacy of the other without losing faith in our own ethics. This diversity in ethical positions resembles the differences between tigers and sharks. Each is potent in its own territory but impotent in the territory of the other.