Ethics 3: Moral Relativism

Note: For new readers, welcome! I greatly recommend you start back at the beginning of this series so that this makes sense. Just go to the search bar and type in "ethics" and all the ethics articles will pop up.

Moral Relativism.

Oh, great. Some fancy words.

So let's break down what "moral relativism" means in a basic way. In the last article, we were talking about who decides what is right and wrong. We came to the conclusion that it's because of God's perfect nature that we feel things as right and wrong. We also came to the conclusion that since atheists don't believe in a god, they resort to the explanation that man decides what is right and wrong.

Moral relativism is based off the idea that man decides what is right. It's when people decide what is truth and what isn't. It can be accurate sometimes, but humans have a fallen nature and so what we discern as right can be erroneous. Although this sounds like an irrational thing to believe, many people do. In America, many people believe that they can choose what is right.

Moral Relativism fits hand in hand with "toleration". Toleration is basically...tolerating. But when used in the sense of tolerating worldviews, it begins to work with moral relativism.

Moral relativism: What is right depends on the person

Toleration: If you think this is true, but I think this is true, we're both right

Although not completely the same, I thought I would mention it.

I personally believe that there is truth and falsehood (right and wrong). I also believe that moral relativism doesn't work because morals aren't relative. There is no "grey". It's either right. Or its wrong.

And if two different people "tolerate" each other even though one believes that there is a God and the other is an atheist, then this can give the impression that the truth has very little significance. It's a "feel-good everybody's right" sort of a deal.

In the next article I'll be starting a discussion on rules and laws. Before that however, I'd greatly recommend thinking about laws with this article fresh on your mind. Does moral relativism and/or toleration work well with laws? How do rules work? Is it possible for moral relativism to work?

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time.
~Caleb