What are the predominant and accepted philosophies in the world today? Well, without doubt, there is no worldwide one… the perdominant thing changes depending upon where you are. So we’ll stick with just us, America. The first thing to come to mind is relativism. I just read something concerning it last night, and that is what brings this whole topic to mind. I also find that pluarlism seems to hold a pretty strong hold on our culture. Which is no surprise… it goes right along with relativism.
Ok, just for anyone who may not be familiar with the term relativism… it can be used to apply to several different things… moral relativism, cognitive relativism…. essentially they all go hand in hand. Truth is relative. Morality is relative. Relative to what? Relative to every individual on the face of the planet. Pluarlism is basically the belief that all religions/belief systems are correct.
Lets start out by talking about relative truth, and consequently, since they are so tightly tied together… pluralism too. I am here to argue that truth, does in fact, exist. For the purposes of this argument, lets assume there are 3 people…. a Christian, an atheist, and a hindu. These are 3 very different beliefs. Christianity dictates that there is only ONE God, Atheism dictates that there is NO God, and Hinduism dictates that there are MANY gods. Every belief is contradictory to the other. How can there be no God and there also be MANY gods? How can there be just ONE God but there also be MANY gods? How can there be ONE God and also NO God? For one statement to be true, the other 2 MUST be false. It cannot be different on an individual basis, because we do not live in an individual reality. We live in a group reality, a shared reality. What I do effects you, what you do effects me, because we effect the reality that we both live in. Face it, your beliefs do not determine reality. You can believe whatever you want, and that’s perfectly fine, but that doesn’t stop you from being dead wrong if it doesn’t line up with reality.
Next is moral relativism. I don’t even see how this is logical. It is simply an excuse for people not to feel guilty about anything. “What I do is right for me even if it isn’t right for you.” In some cases this is a perfectly true statement. Some people can handle things other people can’t. Take alcohol for example. According to the Bible, drunkenness is a sin. However, it never once states that the drinking of alcohol is in and of itself a sin. Therefore, a person who can control his drinking and hold his liquor can drink freely, while someone who has problems with it would have to hold off. This is not to say that one person is allowed to drink and the other not, it is just that the one who has to hold off has a greater problem keeping from becoming drunk and thus committing the sin if he is to drink at all. Now, to simply display how foolish this whole idea of moral relativism really is…. someone breaks into your car and steals your cd player. You go to the cops, the cops find the guy, bring him in and question him. They let him walk off as though nothing happened. ‘what?!’ you say? To your disbelief the police return ‘oh, well, he doesn’t believe that it is wrong to steal. for him, stealing is perfectly acceptable. it is not our place to judge, and so we cannot impose our standards on him.’ You can also bring this into other topics, murder being one of them.
I also like how when people make their arguments for things, they appeal to being “wiser from time”, more or less. Like, “oh, yeah, i used to be just like you… believing that things aren’t relative… boy… sure am glad I grew out of that one!” Yeah, more or less they’re saying “Go away, I’m smarter then you. If you don’t believe what I’m saying without question then I don’t want you around.” Sorry, but relativism is a belief that’s been around for a long time. It’s nothing new. It was present in Greek culture, which predates Christianity. So sorry, no, you are not on the top elitist bandwagon of thought, you are merely riding the wave of an emergence of a very old idea. There is nothing new under the sun.
“Face it, your beliefs do not determine reality. You can believe whatever you want, and that’s perfectly fine, but that doesn’t stop you from being dead wrong if it doesn’t line up with reality” HECK YEA!!
You continue to amaze me with the way you present your thoughts. Lovin’ the cd player analogy. Another thing about beliefs is when people get almost angry when you challenge them. That bothers me. It’s one thing to be passionate about it and take a firm stand. It’s quite another to be pig-headed and refuse to even listen to another person’s opinion that may completely contradict what you think. In listening to another person, you do not show weakness. In fact, it shows you are so sure of what you believe that you are not threatened by hearing another idea/belief presented.
cd player analogy isn’t entirely original… borrowed it from someone else… don’t remember who, but i heard it before… added a bit to it though 😉
hehe yeah it was the relativests who had Plato put to death for teaching what he believed… and they said what he believed was wrong… go figure…
oh and don’t forget Existentialism!!!
amen.
Yep. Right on.
My big thing now is truth. Searching for it. And finding out what it is. I would like to believe it is an idea. [i.e. God as a Subjective Truth]. That is what I would like to believe in, but I can’t get around the Christian ideas ingrained in my head. So, no, I am not a Christian, but I am not anything else either. But, my ideal god would be in an idea [i.e. nature -this isnt true for me – but I would like to ‘find god’ in something like nature, or whatever else].
(I hope that made sense because while I was writing it – it was sounding confusing, heh)
Beth 🙂
holy smokes.
I’ll get back to you with an intellectually stimulating comment later my dear. *wideeyes*