From: Erin Noonan (enoonan@kent.edu)
Date: Wed Oct 02 2002 - 00:48:39 BST
Well I can reason that all men have value but you are
right that 'all men are equal' would have to be accepted
on faith. But I don't accept it because I just argued that Bush has low
intellectual value. But despite this type of value judgement I do accept that
'all men are equal' in the respects that I don't consider
my or anybody elses value judgement to be considered a fact.
Rather then saying I accept 'all men are equal' on faith I
would say I find it useful. It allows everyone to follow
what they value in their own way.
Paco can imply Bush is a genius I can imply that he is
a village idiot. All men are equal gives the same
rights to this genius/idiot even though both judgements
imply different value.
erin
>>I would rather keep faith while eliminating dogmatic
>religion. Faith doesn't necessarily have anything to do
>with making metaphysical or historical statements. Let=92s
>consider a secular example, or what might be considered part
>of our shared American faith: "We hold these truths to be
>self-evident, that all men are created equal=" I contend
>that this is a statement of faith that we assent to as
>Americans. First, recognize that as a statement of fact it
>has no meaning, or we could even say that it is most
>certainly not true in the factual sense. We are not all
>born with the same genetic material and into the same social
>and economic standing. None of us believe it in a factual
>way. In fact, if it was indeed self-evident, it would not
>even have been worth saying. This is a statement of faith
>rather than factual belief in that by assenting to it we are
>holding it to be self-evidentby choosing to assign the same
>value to one another. The life of a king or president is no
>more sacred than the life of a poor child. Assenting to
>"All men are created equal" is recognizing that your self is
>just as important to you as my self is to me. This idea
>affects the decisions we make, the laws we pass, and how we
>administer justice, and most importantly how we interact
>with one another on a daily basis. Not bad for a statement
>that we all know in are minds is not true. It is powerful
>because we hold it in our hearts to be more than fact. This
>is how faith works. Religious faith works in the same way.
>Everyone chooses to live based on convictions that they feel
>have value. Discussion of statements of faith must revolve
>around arguing about the value of living as though a given
>statement is true, not in whether or not it is factually
>true.
>
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