be avoided. Critics respond that avoidance of presentism on issues such as slavery amounts to endorsement of the views of dominant groups, in this case, slaveholders, as against those who opposed them at the time. Lawson argues: Critics further respond that to avoid moral judgments is to practice moral relativism. Some religious historians argue that morality is timeless, having been established by God; they say it is not anachronistic to apply timeless standards to the past. (In this view, while mores may change, morality does not.) Others argue that application of religious standards has varied over time as well. Augustine of Hippo, for example, holds that there exist timeless moral principles, but contends that certain practices (such as polygamy) were acceptable in the past because they were customary but now are neither customary nor acceptable. Fischer, for his part, writes that while historians might not always manage to avoid the fallacy completely, they should at least try to be aware of their biases and write history in such a way that they do not create a distorted depiction of the past. Wokeness Conservative critics have portrayed a trend towards presentism in modern historical scholarship as reflective of a growing dominance of "woke" attitudes in wider society. See also Anachronism Archaism Chronological snobbery Chronocentrism Historian's fallacy Moral high ground Wikipedia:Recentism References Bibliography 1910s neologisms Historiography Informal fallacies Whig history