"Troy: Well yeah, if God exists then he can make the rules however he wants, so I’d have to stop believing in relativism." Have to disagree with Troy here. If God can make the rules however he wants, then there is no objective morality. It's just subjective to whatever God says.
I agree with the benefits of taking time to look at both sides of controversial issues and not just reinforce your own preexisting beliefs. For many years I read both the National Review and the New Republic. I am a strong believer in abortion rights and the baby killer protesters disgust me. However I am also strongly in favor of having help available for women who do not want to be pregnant that would assist them during their pregnancy and after either with placement or with keeping the child after birth in addition to pregnancy termination. Follow up birth control services are also a positive element. I believe Planned Parenthood comes closest to my ideal program because it does address all these options
My thinking is: "The highest good that human beings can achieve is transcendent experience – whether we speculate about that experience in the way that materialists do, as purely the functions of neurons, or in the way that spiritualists do, as a deepened apprehension of a non-material soul, or communion with a non-material higher power – and whether or not we think that such experience culminates in any final enlightenment or salvation. ". . . To achieve [transcendent experience], our behavior must be guided by certain moral values that are innate in all of us at a deep intuitive level, whether we interpret those values and those levels of the mind materialistically or spiritually . . ." http://www.NoTerminationWithoutRepresentation.org/dismantling-the-bodily-rights-argument-without-using-the-responsibility-argument/
Have to disagree with Troy here. If God can make the rules however he wants, then there is no objective morality. It's just subjective to whatever God says.
"The highest good that human beings can achieve is transcendent
experience – whether we speculate about that experience in the way that materialists do, as purely the functions of neurons, or in the way that spiritualists do, as a deepened apprehension of a non-material soul, or communion with a non-material higher power – and whether or not we think that such experience culminates in any final enlightenment or salvation.
". . . To achieve [transcendent experience], our behavior must be guided by certain moral values that are innate in all of us at a deep intuitive level, whether we interpret those values and those levels of the mind materialistically or spiritually . . ."
http://www.NoTerminationWithoutRepresentation.org/dismantling-the-bodily-rights-argument-without-using-the-responsibility-argument/