There are no absolutes.

First off, I want to state that I agree to the first standard proposed by my opponent. We will both be required to uphold our burdens of proof. However, the second standard is too narrow. The resolution is "There are no absolutes." As Pro, my opponent must show that there are no absolutes. If I clearly show that there are absolutes in any area, then I should win the debate. If Pro can prove that there are no absolutes whatsoever, then he should win. Now to my arguments. Absolutes exist. Even if somebody claims not to believe in absolutes, he still lives his life as if there were. For example, relativists talk. The simple use of language assumes that words mean things absolutely. If I mention my cat, I mean a furry animal with four legs, claws, and a tail; not a scaly, legless creature that moves on its belly. That scaly creature would be a snake (not mine). We assume certain absolutes for daily living. Here are just some of them: language, numbers, existence of actual objects, reliability of our senses, temperature, and basic laws of physics. My opponent may disagree with me on these being absolutes, but if you really think about it, they are. What if your senses were NOT basically reliable REALLY. How could I trust then that I actually perceive reality? How could I know there was any reality at all? Some people may say there is no reality, but their lives certainly belie their position. People live as though there are absolutes. Why? Because there are absolutes. Absolutes exist. If you deny them, then the whole cosmos falls apart. Let's look at the four areas I said that there are absolutes. Moral absolutes: There are absolutes morally. Every person eventually has a threshold where they will call some action "evil" and some other action "good." Where does the standard for good and evil come from? If it is indeed relative, then nothing can be evil or good. If you believe cannibalism is wrong, but I believe it is right, then it cannot be absolutely evil if relativism is the standard. If morality is indeed every man for himself, then why is anything wrong? Why should we not all kill, steal, and lie if that benefits us? How can anyone call anything evil or bad if relativism is the standard? However, there are things that are evil. I have never once heard anyone say one good thing about Hurricane Katrina, or the tsunami that hit Japan in 2011. I have never heard anyone call a pedophile a good person. We all know there is good and evil, and there is remarkable concurrence. For example, if I swiped someone's phone, she (and all the rest of society) would call me a thief. We hold to absolutes in the area of morality. Even if somebody claims there are no such absolutes, that person lives as though there were. Physical absolutes: Reality is absolute. This computer that I am typing on really exists. My fingers exist. My eyes and brain exist. The chair I am sitting on exists. If I suddenly push really hard on the (really existing) ground with my (really existing) feet, then I will tip over my (really existing) chair and the (actual) laws of gravity will pull my chair to the ground, and I will feel actual pain in my (really existing) head. All of these things are absolute. If you doubt it, try it sometime. The pain of your head hitting either the floor or your iron bed frame will NOT be illusory, and you will have a bump on your head for some time after. Physical absolutes are probably the easiest to prove. Even those who say that physical absolutes do not exist ACT as though there were. They open doors instead of trying to walk through them. They eat real food to keep their bodies alive. They walk around objects so that they don't bump into them. When they drive, they act as though the other cars really exist, and as though their car really exists. Physical objects are absolutes. Intellectual absolutes: Here I will focus on logic. We are debating here, so hopefully both of us are using logic at this point. :) Certain things about logic are absolute. For example, A is A, and A is not non-A. These are the two basic premises from which all logic and thinking stem. One concept or thing is that concept or thing. It cannot be, or be equal to, its opposite. The law of non-contradiction holds true in all cases, everywhere: If p is true, then not p is false. The statements "I am me" and "I am not me" cannot be true at the same time. This is an absolute. If you reject this absolute, then you cannot think. There is absolutely no basis for thinking if we reject these absolutes. And all relativists can think. They act in accordance with these absolutes, even if they say that these absolutes don't exist. Spiritual absolutes: There are spiritual absolutes. Some of them are the same as the intellectual ones I described above. But there are also others. For example, you cannot be a follower of all the world's religions at the same time. The God of the Bible is very different from Krishna, for instance. Each religion has its own claims, and they are contradictory with each other. You cannot believe in Islam and Hinduism at the same time. Islam claims that there is only one God, while Hinduism is a mix of polytheism and pantheism. And ultimately, whether you like it or not, only one religion can be right. They cannot all be true at the same time. If you really look at the claims of each religion, you'll find that this is indeed the case. These are absolutes. I have here made my case for the existence of absolutes. I have discussed absolutes in general, and absolutes in four specific areas. I now leave the floor open to my opponent to make his case.