Question: "What is moral relativism?" Answer: Moral relativism is more easily understood in comparison to moral absolutism.

Absolutism claims that morality relies on universal principles (natural law, conscience . . . the Golden Rule, if you will). Christian absolutists believe that God is the ultimate source of our common morality, and that it is therefore as unchanging as e is. Moral relativism asserts that morality is not based on any absolute standard. Rather, ethical !truths! depend on the situation, culture, one"s feelings, etc. Moral relativism is gaining popularity today. #here are several arguments for relativism$ however, several things can be said of them all which demonstrate their dubious nature. %irst, while many of the arguments used in the attempt to support these various claims might sound good at first, there is a logical contradiction inherent in all of them because they all propose the &right' moral scheme ( the one we all ought to follow. )ut this itself is absolutism. *econd, even so+called relativists re,ect relativism in most cases ( they would not say that a murderer or rapist is free from guilt so long as they did not violate his own standards. #hird, the very fact that we have words such as right, wrong, ought, better, etc., show that these things e-ist. .f morality were truly relative, these words would have no meaning + we would say, !#hat feels bad to me,! not, !#hat is wrong.! Relativists may argue that different values among different cultures show that morals are relative to different people. )ut this argument confuses the actions of individuals (what they do) with absolute standards (whether they should do it). .f culture determines right and wrong, how could we have ,udged the /a0is1 #hey were following their culture"s morality, after all. 2nly if murder is universally wrong were the /a0is wrong. #he fact that they had &their morality' does not change that. %urther, although many people have different outwor3ings of morality, they still share a common morality. %or instance, abortionists and anti+abortionists agree that murder is wrong, but they disagree on whether abortion is murder. *o, even here, absolute universal morality is shown to be true. *ome claim that changing situations ma3e for changing morality + in different situations different acts are called for that might not be right in other situations. )ut there are three things by which we must ,udge an act4 the situation, the act, and the intention. %or e-ample, we can convict someone of attempted murder (intent) even if they fail (act). *o situations are part of the moral decision, for they set the conte-t for choosing the specific moral act (the application of universal principles). #he main argument relativists appeal to is that of tolerance. #hey claim that telling someone that his or her morality is wrong is intolerant, and relativism tolerates all views. )ut this is simply misleading. %irst of all, evil should never be tolerated. *hould we tolerate a rapist"s view that women are ob,ects to be abused1 *econd, it is self+defeating because relativists do not tolerate intolerance or absolutism. #hird, relativism cannot e-plain why anyone should be tolerant in the first place. #he very fact that we should tolerate people (even when we disagree) is based on the absolute moral rule that we should always treat people fairly ( but that is absolutism again5 .n fact, without universal moral principles there can be no goodness.

#he fact is that all people are born with a conscience, and we all instinctively 3now when we have been wronged or when we have wronged others. 6e act as though we e-pect others to recogni0e this as well. 7ven as children we 3new the difference between !fair! and !unfair.! .t ta3es bad philosophy to convince us that we are wrong.