Is it possible to have absolutes in beliefs?

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I am thinking that the criticism of people not following absolutes is invalid since there are so many variables put into play when dealing with issues. Take for example people who advocate tolerance. Would they be hypocritical not to be supportive of beliefs that are set to primarily promote intolerance?

My bad I thought this was going to be about a new drink called

"Beliefs" with Absolute vodka in it ....runs away.....

To me thinking in "between" absolutes is the only way I can really understand something. For example, I used to be frustrated because I couldn't really nail down what my political affiliation was, and it's not that I wasn't political or well read, because I am, it's that I have so much processing all the information, and knowing which information to trust or not. For example, if I was just coming into American politics and I wanted to decide whether I was Republican or Democrat. Well, if you hang around with such and such and watch Micheal Moore documentaries then you know that the economy sucks because of Bush and the mideast sucks because of Bush and everything else in this country that sucks does so because of Bush. Or you could make some conservative friends and listen to Rush Limbaugh find out that Bush is the underdog who inherited problems from Clinton and Iraq isn't actually that bad, you get the idea. Well, I'm not an economist and I haven't been to Iraq and there's no way I can make an objective judgement on things like this without giving every single issue a LOT of thought and analysis (which no one does, their affiliation automatically provides their perspective). So I ended up "becoming" libertarian, and whenever I tell some person who's very political, they start up with the national park privatization thing, and I tell them that I don't think national parks should be privatized and that beyond that I don't have all the answers, that anyone who thinks they do is fooling themselves, and that opinions can be widely divergent within one party.

Also, being socially "unintuitive," I've been known to miss out on some aspects of friendship or relationships. At the same time, I feel I can see but not understand other aspects of them that most people are aware of on only a subconscious level. The only way I can reconcile these things that I can't understand to myself is by imagining them as being stranded between two points on a line and leave them at that. It helps me take things not quite so personally when I feel that people are more conflicted in the choices that they make.

That would be because absolutes are how people who cannon handle the world deal with it. As soon as you shake people out of their comfort zone or bring the cold, hard truth of logic onto someone's beliefs and they come up lacking, they react very vehemently in it's defense. Besides, another word that is often used for those who rigorously defend absolutes is 'fantatic.'

I agree with subalternnavert. I think that most people who believe in absolutes do so because living in a world where nothing is solid and stable is just too frightening for them. To oversimplify, most people need to believe that the people in black hats are bad and the ones in white hats are good. The only thing I am absolute about is that nothing should be taken as absolute.... I think that there should be nothing that cannot be objectively and dispassionately discussed. As soon as passing enters into the quest for knowledge and truth, the whole endeavor is lost.

There is a great example from Thucydides' History. Athenian leaders met with the leaders of a small city-state. The Athenians and the other leaders discussed whether or not to kill all the men in the city-state and enslave all the women and children. The city leaders argued calmly and logically against their whole sale destruction, and though the Athenians decided to kill them anyway, I'm sure that it was more helpful than screaming at them that killing people is wrong. That may be true but that is no way to carry on a discussion. All matters, no matter how apparently wrong and obscene they are, should be discussed with logic and dispassion.

I think there are absolutes in right and wrong. If it's counter-progressive to a stable society, such as ignorance or intolerance, or if one's actions are hurting an innocent sentient being (unless it's for immediate survival), this is wrong.
I think there is an absolute in that people need to stop using evolution as a crutch for immorality and people need to evolve themselves beyond their animal behaviors, so that everyone can live in harmony, peace, freedom (with logical limitations), and stability. But that's just my opinion.

Tribalism is far from the absolute truth, but people are generally bred into a tribalist society.

He didn't prove that she believes that some moralities are timeless. All he proved is that she believed that the death of them wouldn't make something they believe is immoral moral. Even if it was valid, he used a strawman to prove his point.

Whilst people do not have the right to choose their own morality fully, there are some who will.
There are certain rules that everyone, in theory, has to obey or at least those that live in a specific community.
However, some people mantain the mentality that 'It's not a crime if I don't get caught'.

While I disagree with some of the laws, I still obey them.


So in other words, laws are absolutes for where you live, as far as they govern themselves but within those laws, everyone can choose their own morality.


Obviously, as things change with the times, different things are restricted by laws and the absoultues of morality that people must follow, in order for society (and in order to escape punsishment), the absolutes shift.


However, there are some laws that needed to be broken. Just don't break them for the heck of it. If you've got a reason, I'll listen to it but it'd better be a good one.

Following an absolute path is a dangerous one. It can lead to volatile arguments and fights.
However, I am guilty of dealing in absolutes as well.
The only people that don't, have nothing to stand on.

i think it is possible to have absolutes in beliefs.