Every time I hear from other people that everything in the world is relative, I really wonder whether it is the absolute truth or just another relative statement. How can we know that something is absolutely true? Who has established the standard of truth, and how can it be proved as the only one? Moral relativists deny the existence of truth, and thus make moral decision making an easy thing which cannot be argued as a wrong one, because there is no other truly alternative. However, “by dogmatically asserting that there is no truth, people have become close-minded to the possibility of knowing truth, if in fact it does exist” (Beckwith). In my opinion, relativism of personal opinions, statements and some personal values is good as it leads to tolerance, diversity and individuality of human beings. Every person should find personal truth which would become absolute for him or her.
However, when it comes to moral issues, I am not that loyal. I think that some moral values can slightly differ from culture to culture, from society to society, from person to person. To illustrate, lie is mainly considered to be a morally bad behavior. However, sometimes it can save someone`s family, friendship or even life. Naturally, we do not need to base our relationships with others on lie, but if there is no other way to overcome some difficulties, there should be some place for it; naturally, only when lie serves the highest good. However, some human acts should be morally inappropriate, no matter what circumstances caused them. For example, abortion, rape, murder, slavery, kidnapping, terrorism, etc. - everything that violates human rights and takes invaluable lives of people away. In this case, I am a moral absolutist. I truly believe that such human conducts are absolutely wrong; no one has a moral right to underestimate the value of life, violate human right to exist and then explain it by relativism of things in the world.
Reference
Beckwith, F. (2009). Philosophical problems with moral relativism. Christian Research Institute. Retrieved from http://www.equip.org/articles/philosophical-problems-with- …