Brandalyn asked:

What are your thoughts on the events of September 11th?

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I'm not even sure that this is the right forum for this question. As a philosopher, I can say that a
terrorist act like that is immoral, and feel reasonably sure that I'm correct. I'm not qualified to answer
as a sociologist, which I think is really the most relevant field for this kind of discussion. I mean, once I
say that I think it's immoral, where do we go from there? To my views of morality? But so what? And
you're not going to find any philosophers considered decent who don't agree, not to mention that
none - without exception - of the mainstream religious movements condone such acts. Overtly, at
least. Recently, anyway. The question to ask, I believe, is not whether the wholesale slaughter of
innocents and non-combatants is moral or not - clearly it isn't, whoever is doing it, whether it's small
groups of terrorists, religions, or governments - but what can be done to prevent such acts in the
future. And that's not a philosophical question. There is a book that's just come out; you might look at
it: Jessica Stern's Terror in the Name of God.

Steven Ravett Brown