Relativism gets a very bad press from most moral philosophers. The ‘freshman relativist’ is a nightmare figure of introductory classes in ethics, rather like the village atheist (but what’s so good about village theism?)
-- Simon Blackburn, Being Good (2001), p. 19
Both Chesterton and C. S. Lewis knew the value of the honorable atheist -- nay, valued him beyond what even his fellow unbelievers might offer, since both of them saw both the inflexible rectitude…. and the immortal soul. We likewise have honored him here.
Re-reading Blackburn’s delightful treatise on ethics -- epigram after epigram (as above), yet deep to boot -- we were reminded of Chesterton’s outstanding story “The Hammer of God”, in which both the village atheist, and the village Puritan, get their due. (Spoiler alert: Neither one of them was the murderer.) My sage advice to you young folks (meaning: everyone under eighty) is to drop whatever it is you are doing and read that wonderful bit of detective fiction, featuring that noted clerical shamus, Father Brown.
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