Ecclesia vs. Galileo 1

My daughter and I had talked about Morality and Moral Relativism while we drove to Toronto a few years ago. I do not believe Moral Relativism, but I also do not believe arguments against Moral Relativism. I think Moral Relativism is a philosophy in the same sense that I could say every Thursday I have a philosophy about how to best fill the recycle bin; newspaper bound and placed beneath, milk jugs flattened and placed to the left, etc.
Ditto for reasonings and arguments against Moral Relativism. More about Moral Relativism later.

However, we did talk about the place of morality in the world and its proper function in society. I set forth the opinion that morality acts in society as a damping system. It has been said that many complex systems operate upon the edge of chaos, and the ability to perform spectacularly depends on their being at the edge. In order to prevent the complex systems from stepping over the edge and crashing, there need be damping systems which pull the system back into a normal mode. Morality should perform the function of pulling mankind back from falling over the precipice of chaos. It actually has done this.

Consider the history of the 20th century. Not too auspicious an outlook for the survival of the human species. Yet, the United States and the Soviet Union did pull off one of the greatest moral victories of human history: they did not use atomic weapons. (Inexplicably, the powers of today seem to have decided to play out this scenario again! The Atomic Destruction Scenario was played and we won. Why go through it a second time?) Many people contributed to that victory. It has been suggested that atomic weapons should never have been developed. We may render judgment after we have played out Atomic Destruction again.

All people of goodwill contribute to the establishment of morality throughout the world. When the Church put Galileo on trial, did some members of the clergy dimly perceive the murderous potential of the New Science, much as did Oppenheimer that bright, bright morning in New Mexico? Cardinal Bellarmine perceived Galileo's novelties to be a threat to the established order, but did he think that this knowledge might ever be a threat to life itself? When the second game of Atomic Destruction is played out soon, we will know whether blessed Cardinal Bellarmine had been correct.