Morality Decreasing With Time?

Well, I've got to say, that your post didn't really explain anything or support your position at all.

So; is that supposed to mean that the reason for the decline is something we fail to percieve?
How does that work?

"There goes our federal prosecutor," he said, "a fine man whom I met under very tragic circumstances." As he labored through the details in recounting their first contact, I knew this was not just another crisis in a minister's routine, but an ineradicable scar on his pastoral heart.He told me of a young couple he had married some years ago, who had represented to him every ideal worth emulating. They were the mascot of excellence held up before the youth of the church. Both were in preparation for the practice of medicine, and were on sizable scholarships of merit. As he had driven away after performing their wedding ceremony, he had rehearsed in his own mind what a grand occasion it had been, and that in all his years of ministry he had not seen a more radiant couple. He thrilled at the prospect of all that lay ahead of them.But then like a shattered dream, only a few months into the marriage there was a dreadful awakening. In the pre-dawn hours of a wintry night the pastor was aroused by the telephone, and a voice out of control which begged him to come to their apartment. The caller, the young man of such promise, kept stuttering the words, "I think I have killed her! I think I have killed her!" The minister hastily dressed and rushed over to their home, only to find the young woman lying lifeless in her bed, and the young husband emotionally ravaged, sobbing inconsolably at her side.What had happened? What had led to this pitiful state of affairs? After a long time of prying and pleading, the story unfolded. Some weeks earlier this young woman had discovered that she was pregnant. With years of study still ahead, neither of them had wanted to start a family. This sudden turn of events spelled chaos into all their plans, and drove them desperately in search of a solution. Every option was considered. Finally, one statement escaped from the young woman's lips that she had never dreamed she would utter. "This is completely devastating," she said. "There is no other way but to abort this child if our careers are to survive."The very suggestion precipitated a deep rift between them. They were both known on their campus for their outspoken conviction on the sanctity of the child's life in the womb, and that that life, they fervently believed, had a right all its own. Now, beyond their control contingencies had invaded their absolutes, and "fate" had threatened their autonomy. Conviction was in conflict with ambition, and a private decision was being made that they hoped would never be betrayed in public. Husband and wife were uncompromisingly on the opposite ends of this dilemma as he pled with her to reconsider.That is when her final solution was proposed. "Then let us do this at home," she said. "You bring all the equipment we need to the apartment, and no one need ever know." As a young medical student, he felt this could be accomplished, and so meticulous plans were nervously laid for that fateful night. Not yet fully trained in the administration of an anesthetic, he stumbled through the procedure and unwittingly gave her a much larger dose than he should have. His greatest fear became a ghastly deed, and he lost her. In the panicking moments that followed, with trembling hands and a cry of desperation he reached for the telephone and uttered those remorse-ridden words, "Pastor, please hurry and come to our apartment. I think I have killed her."HEARTWARMING OPTIONS...BONE-CHILLING POSSIBILITIES
Anyone who has experienced the immediate or even delayed consequences of a tragic act or event, knows the horror of such a feeling, from which no amount of human ingenuity can bring about an undoing. The most agonizing effect of such irreversibility is the very humbling fact that it was human finitude that brought about the consequence in the first place. It is not my intention to drag this experience into a particular debate on a single moral issue in order to prove one viewpoint or the other. I only share it because in this nightmare of an event, every individual and societal struggle that we as a civilization now face seems crystallized, and the powers of our institutions seem powerless to find a unifying solution. For here, "religious beliefs" collided at cross-purposes with career goals. Here, Church and State met with equal dismay and sorrow. Here, private solutions sought escape from public castigation. Here, technology goaded a mind into a high-risk decision. Here, expediency compromised wisdom. And here, human sovereignty was left crushed by its own hands. In short, the confrontation between religious belief and a preferred lifestyle left a bloody trail.This demonstrates in extraordinary terms that the moral options we face are more confounding as technology, education, and cultural shifts have become powerful factors in decision-making. At the same time, we are all aware that the maladies we will increasingly face are not going to be restricted to the controversial matters of abortion or sexuality; nor are they going to be in the uncharted terrain of genetic engineering or euthanasia; nor, for that matter, in the vastness of global issues such as violence, ethnic cleansing, or AIDS. Inexorably, our search for more and more is carried on with unprecedented entailments and costs, as new tools and opportunities for which the moral sense seems unprepared become available. These are undoubtedly monumental concerns, and are life-altering in their scope. But as divisive as they are, these issues are only the "above ground" manifestations, and result from a deep foundational shift in our culture whose proud boast is self-determination, and whose legitimizing license provides the very basis for our decision-making. If that foundation (which continues to shift under many strains) settles unevenly, then the once stable infrastructure standing upon it will be imperiled, and a total collapse is only a matter of time.

scottness writes:And that is not to suggest that ancient cultures were always more reflective than we, but there was an immediacy to their existence.

The immediate trials and tribulations of life in eras before ours (and in countries with less labour saving technologies) would have allowed for far less time to be spent on interospection than we are used to in (well I'm in the UK) the Western World.With our ability to take more time as leisure time we have more 'time' to devote to interospective thoughts.The very fact that the question of decaying morals is a question for us implies we have that 'free time' to ponder such questions. I would contend that people working day after day just to survive (as was the case for the majority in a pre 21st century technology society) spend most of their time thinking 'survival thoughts'.

That is unless you assume that 'good morals' are fixed as good at some point in time and deviation from that point is, well devient.

The story you posted shows me one thing and one thing only. If the couple did not have a religious objection to going to a professional, the entire snafu would not have occured.
It's not question of morals in this case. It's a religions ability to force the couple to take a high risk option that caused the above tragedy.A very sad story that would not have occured if they had no anxieties leaned from their church. I mean for gods sake, why did they not call a doctor before the minister?

I think it is even more profound than that. Time has nothing to do with the equation. Good is good irrespective of time. And that is one reason why it can be said that mankind is the same as it has always been.

The trouble with this sort of moral absolutism is that it is easy to make such genaral sweeping statements as the above but very difficult to back them up with specific absolutist examples. What is universally good? What is a specific example of something that is universally bad?

This is false. Morality not only changes over time, but it changes from place to place, depending on the local culture.

scottness writes:David does something that is wrong... has sex. But having sex isn't always wrong. that is your point right?