Three Moral Relativism: The Consequences Of Ethical Beliefs

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According to moral relativism, or ethical relativism, all views, no matter if they vary across cultures or people, are equally valid and no single belief is absolute, but is satisfactory to the moral standards of a person or group of people. These beliefs are stemmed from ones’ environment or preference. Just because something may be right for you, doesn’t necessarily mean that it is right for everyone else. Ethical relativism is linked to normative subjectivism, which describes the state under which a certain action may be considered right or wrong. This means that the action of another can be considered right if the person pursuing that action believes so. Following that, if a particular person finds something to be true, then there is no …show more content…
God exhibits the true moral laws, the ten commandments, and commands us to follow them or else he will punish us. In a morally relativistic culture, the only reason that one would or wouldn’t do anything is to avoid possible consequences. Possible consequences include punishment, which assumes ethical egoism. You want to avoid punishment for your own interest. We obey because it is important to obey your creator, however then comes into question who your creator may be. If your creator is the devil, is it still important to obey the commands you are given? Another reason we obey is because God is omniscient and knows the laws. However, this bypasses Gods command and could be the same for anyone who knows laws. So, just because God commands us doesn’t explain why we should obey. Lastly, the Divine Command Theory explains why we obey. The Divine Command theory is a meta-ethical theory that a “morally good” action is equivalent to whether it is commanded by God. God may command something that is “right” but approves something that is “good”. However, there are some contradictions that go along with this theory. Firstly, God may command us to do something when it is not permissible to. For example, God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham was therefore protected, but Isaac was put into the deathly situation. Another contradiction would be if we discovered God doesn’t exist. We would still consider some laws that were brought to our attention when we believed there was a God to be true, for example it is cruel to kill innocents. The last contradiction of the Divine Command Theory is that moral laws supervene on the psycho-physical world. This means that any two worlds that are alike is psycho-physical properties, are also alike in moral properties. All in all, since everything is relative then all of these laws are

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