Without getting into a religious argument about truth, science, the existence of God, etc... I think there is a real unintended consequence of younger generati

Without getting into a religious argument about truth, science, the existence of God, etc... I think there is a real unintended consequence of younger generations turning away from all forms of religion or absolute spiritual truth in any form. In short, there is a set of morals and ethics that is deeply rooted in Christianity and Judaism that for a long time helped steer this country in a generally good direction. In the absence of any great sense of moral authority, right vs. wrong, good vs. evil, etc. you have a completely situational and relative morality. That is to say, what is right and wrong depends on who you are, what you believe, and your own personal sense of justice or fairness. Eventually, things are only wrong if they are deemed illegal, and laws can be written to say anything or do anything. At some point the only thing that is "wrong" is upsetting someone more powerful than you. As in, it's only wrong if you get caught or get in trouble. For example, many international companies play on the fringes of the international tax code by routing money through various shell companies and intermediaries so as to avoid paying taxes in various countries. If it was the mafia and they sold drugs instead of software or advertising, it would be considered money laundering, which we should all agree is illegal and wrong. Now, when people read stories on that topic, they comment that Google or Apple aren't doing anything wrong because what they are doing is "perfectly legal", even if they are going out of their way to avoid the spirit of the law. Shareholders are fine with this behavior because they are greedy and it makes them more money. As long as nobody is thrown in jail, what does it hurt right? A stronger moral standard would be to say that if you are doing business in a country, you should pay a reasonable and fair tax rate along with everyone else doing business in that country. To skirt tax obligations through financial maneuvering and engineering the flow of money is somewhat akin to stealing. I am not pro media companies ripping people off, but people take a very similar approach to illegal file sharing for their favorite shows and movies. If something is available for rental or purchase at a reasonable price, people should pay the $1-4 to rent or about $5-15 to buy. However, many people choose to download things illegally without any intent of paying the producers of their favorite movie, game, or tv show. At some point, theft is theft. I'm not saying that life is perfect if everyone is a Christian believer or anything like that. What I'm saying is there are morals and ethics that are falling by the wayside amongst Christians and non-Christians and I've seen nothing in secularism, athiesm, or agnosticsm that is doing much to replace them. I don't know where we end up as a country, but the trend away from faith and any sense of moral or ethical absolutes is going to be one of the worst unintended consequences of the modern "enlightenment" of science and technology. For all the technical or intellectual progress we've made in the last 100 years, morally and ethically we seem to be worse off.