A recent posting in the Huffington Post entitled, "Mississippi 'Personhood' Amendment Vote Fails quoted a supporter of a Mississippi ballot initiative that would have defined life as beginning at the moment of fertilization as saying, "I figure you can't be half for something, so if you're against abortion you should be for this. You've either got to be wholly for something or wholly against it." It would be hard to find a better put or more clearly stated rendition of what is sometimes called "moral dualism" or even "Persian dualism". This form of dualism looks on reality as being divided into two absolute spheres of good and evil, which are in conflict with each other. As a rule, there is no middle ground. If a thing is good then it is good. And if something is evil then it is evil. Rigid boundaries, thus, separate good from evil, right from wrong, and God from Satan. The reigning metaphors of moral dualism are the contrast between black and white and between night and day.The key to it all is that the dual categories, whatever they might be, are absolute. They are separated by a equally absolute boundaries. Thus, by the logic of moral dualism it makes perfect sense to say, "You've either got to be wholly for something or wholly against it." To do otherwise, again by the logic of moral dualism, would be immoral and illogical, it would be a denial of reality. Thus, the more nuanced approach to abortion taken by some, which is both pro-life and pro-choice, is nothing less than dualistic nonsense. "Both...and" simply does not exist in the cognitive landscape of dualism.
The problem with dualism is, of course, that the world we live in and we ourselves are a confusing, inconsistent mixture of things. There is very little in the real world that is black and white. We know this. The sad thing about dualism, thus, is that it forces choices that don't have to be made, creates walls that don't have to be built, and distorts decisions that are better made taking into account the reality of the world we live in. It is a sad fact that all three of the great theist religions—Judaism, Islam, & Christianity—are prone to theological and ideological versions of moral dualism (as are their most vocal critics), which leads said adherents to behave and think in ways that effectively deny the very precepts their faiths teach. There must be a better way, one that for Christians is a more Christ-like way. Amen.
