“Values are as Real as Grain Prices.” An excellent one page article/interview by Carlos Eire, Yale Professor of History and Religious Studies. In Yale University Divinity School publication Reflections.
Great quotes:
“Beliefs and values actually do define societies, cultures, and civilizations. I say this because intellectual history as an academic discipline is nearly dead. What has taken its place is a crypto-Marxist notion that material factors and issues of class, race, and gender are the only “real” dimension in history. According to this dominant point of view, beliefs are just symptoms of deeper, purely material concerns, not causal factors. This makes religion as inconsequential as a hiccup. But certainly societies are moved by beliefs and ideals, even if these are in constant interplay with material factors. I believe ideals and values are as real as grain prices, and make even more of a difference in the way people live.”
“I also believe that some beliefs and ideals are infinitely better than others.”
“Moral relativism is undoubtedly as great a threat to the human race today as intolerance and nuclear and biological warfare.”
“Paradoxically, the toughest question we face in the West is whether or not we can afford to tolerate those who espouse intolerance at one extreme and moral relativism at the other.”
