[VonDondu]

Okay, my mistake. Instead of saying, "There's no such thing as right and wrong until we know what they are," what you're really saying is, "There's no such thing as right and wrong until we SAY what's right and wrong."

I'm a little too tired to get into this right now, but I'll write back tomorrow. Essentially, what I want to explain is my belief that right and wrong exist independently of human thought. People may or may not ever learn the "truth", but that doesn't change the truth. However, I agree that people who don't know the difference between right and wrong cannot make genuine moral choices and therefore cannot be held morally responsible for their amoral actions. However, to illustrate one of the differences between law and ethics, I still think that people who do "bad things" should be punished simply because it's a good social policy, not because the law embodies everything that's right and wrong.

That's the gist of it.