What if the problems go much deeper?

Ideals are not absolutes.

Truth, beauty, platonic forms are ideals.

The core codes, creeds, heroes, narratives at the center of every culture are ideals.

The universal, on the other hand, is the elemental.

So a spiritual absolute would be the essence of sentience, from which we rise, not an ideal of wisdom and judgement, from which we fell.

The light shining though the film, than the stories playing out on it.

Morality is not absolute, as it couldn't be transgressed, if it were. Like a temperature below absolute zero.

Morals are the habits, ideals, codes, rules that enable a healthy society. Such as one's value and status a function of what one adds, not what one extracts. Which is necrotic. We only have to look around to see it.

Remember democracy and republicanism originated in pantheistic cultures. The many ideas and ideals interacting.

Ancient Israel was a monarchy. The Big Guy Rules. Like the religion.

Constantine adopted Christianity for the monotheism, as he pulled the Empire together. The Big Guy Rules.

The Catholic Church provided the eschatological basis for European monarchy. Divine right of kings. As opposed to consent of the governed.

When the West went back to democracy and republicanism, it required separation of church and state, culture and civics.

Currently it seems the West is crumbling.