OK Carol, opt out of sanctimony..let everyone ignore their God-given consciences...but don't then ask Why does God allow it? when we have natural or man-made disasters/tragedies!

Edwin Self, Sheffield , UK

"The higher moral ground, in a democracy, belongs to consensus drawn from the values of the majority and implemented by the flawed beast that is the law."
A typically totalitarian approach, denying conscientious objection.
At the end of the day, do you side with Antigone, or with Cleon? But when Cleon is equipped with all the paraphernalia of 'democracy' and 'soft ' dictatorship rules OK, is it not indeed a crime against 'Miniver' (the Ministry of truth) to still want to think in terms of the common good and the requirements of one's individual conscience?
Perhaps if you use caricature and you lump together completely different levels of analysis your approach is not really helpful?
RSA, Brittany, France

Serge AUFFRET, MALESTROIT, France

So Carol Sarler believes that we should, deny education and employment to people who have moral scruples that run counter to the current orthodoxy. What a recipe for tyranny! Also in her ferocious article what contempt for a couple who have fostered 28 children and what distortion of their views!

Michael Askew, York, UK

There is no "higher moral ground" or "lower moral ground" in a true democracy which is about equality. People can practice, buy or sell whatever morality they want, so long as they don't force their morality upon others without fully informed consent it's OK.

The majority values of our democracy provide such liberty for each and every individual citizen here in the UK . Those who consider themselves "exempt" as you say " deserve no more endorsement or admiration than any other petty delinquent."

Mrs.Josephine Hyde-Hartley, Bacup,

JL, he exisence of fundamental moral principles in no way shape or form relies on any kind of deity. If morals came from a god, then where did the god get the morals? And more importantly, why does the god allow people to transgress them.
The existence of an objective morality is easily explained by instinct - traits that developed through the group selection of humanity as a social animal.

Pete, Pete,

If Carol Sarler was right, slavery would never have been abolished, and Nazism never expunged from Germany.

Chris Sugden, Oxford, England

I fundamentally disagree. Since when have truth and morality been determined by democracy? It's like saying that if enough people believe something to be true and/or just then it must be so. Maybe that worked for the flat-earthers during the Middle-Ages but it's clearly a recipe for anarchy in the present. Truth and justice are concepts that exist independently of our apprehension of them. They are eternally and absolutely valid. Our task is only to apply them with our imperfect reason. In other words, you can't have a society or morality without the existence of God.

JL, Paris, France

Whilst on the whole I agree with you, if you take your premise to its logical conclusion, you arrive at the position where the most moral society on earth must be the one whose leader and whose leader's policies and moral vision enjoy the greatest level of support amongst the voting public. in other words, the Russian Federation.

Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK

Quite right Carol, thunder away.

Castro Spendlove, Brighton. Queens Park.,