[malorum]

Post from the heart? very nice.

Worth noting however that accepted Deductive methods vary:
(In particular note point 4 and respond if possible)

1.
Certainly within the liberal arts or within politics, rationalisations, and arguments from authority are commonplace if not the norm.
In mathematics reference to a respected yet senile author who claims that 2+2=1 (in anything other than modulo 3) does not necessarily carry the same weight, as a historians reference to historical 'fact'.

2. In the Lutheran dogmatic tradition Logic is used ministerialy. There is formal acknowledgment that the lines of reasoning my include 'apparent' contradictions. (Logic is used ministerially rather than magisterially.)

3. Ethics is one of those fuzzy areas generally treated with rationalizations, evidentially unsupported axioms, and ill defined terms. (eg. "Everyone agrees murder is wrong" - "What do you mean by murder?" "You sure about that?")

4. At a fundamental level in rational terms ethics depend on your understanding of free will. To suggest that ideas of Good and Evil and crime and punishment are meaningful at more than an experiential level, requires and acceptance of a non-deterministic world-model that is not well supported by current scientific consensus.