"I have it on good authority. . . ."

"There's never been a true war that wasn't fought between two sets of people who were certain they were in the right. The really dangerous people believe they are doing whatever they are doing solely and only because it is without question the right thing to do. And that is what makes them dangerous." --Neil Gaiman (That is a quote from Wordsmith.org)

It might be that we defend whatever we do by appealing to authority. Sometimes we assume the authority ourselves, and say we wanted to do it, or felt like it, or couldn't help it. Sometimes we blame it--that is, place the authority--on our family, or on our heritage, or our church. When we want to play our trump card, we cite God as our authority. Want to top that?

Ethics become absolute only when we cite an absolute authority: for religious people, that's God. For most of us, we bumble along, explaining what we are appealing to: our helplessness, human decency, long custom, national character, or pure rage. When we recognize that we did something stupid, or outrageous, or harmful, we lament that we were weak, or showing our racist tendencies, or were perhaps unwittingly brainwashed. Only when God is our authority, our absolute authority, can we be confident that we are absolutely right, and that is when we are most dangerous. That is when we go to war. There is no personal responsibility; no choice.

Only when we know that all of our decisions are less than absolute, that there really are no absolute rights and wrongs, but that it takes brains and personal responsibility to act morally, do we have a chance of getting things mostly right.

That is why war is so dangerous.
That is why religious justifications are so dangerous.
That is why Tea Parties are so dangerous.

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