Now let me qualify something: I am not trying to say that morals are objective or subjective. I have an opinion on that, but it’s not the purpose of this editorial. I am merely trying to bring to attention the idea that most people haven’t really come to terms with the implications of their worldview.
I think we do this in a lot of ways, but certainly with ethics. I recently saw a news report on CNN about a homeless man who was beaten by two college students. What makes the report stick in my mind is the fact that the students videotaped themselves beating him. As he desperately tried to crawl away, the students took turns punching and kicking the innocent man. It was an awful scene. As a side note, the students were later arrested after they put their video on Facebook. Justice served.
As CNN played the clip over and over, I raged. I was mad because of what I was seeing. I knew there was something very wrong about beating a helpless person for fun. But what troubles me more is the fact that if I held to moral relativism, where right and wrong are just the result of me deciding for myself, then I would have no authority to say that what the students did was actually wrong. It could certainly be wrong in a relative sense, but only for me.
Again, this is not to say that I couldn’t think what they did was wrong. In fact, I would be appalled if I did not think that way. But on the basis of my worldview, I could only say what they did was wrong because I think it is wrong, and for no other reason.
After all, what would happen if the assailants made the claim that they were innocent? Now who is right? Without objective standards, nobody is. We couldn’t even reason with one another, because we would have no common ground.
Students are not the only guilty ones. In fact, it seems that most people do this. I cannot tell you how many conversations I have gotten myself into where people will profess moral relativism, yet hold nothing back when they condemn the actions of others as morally atrocious.
And it’s not just morals where we do this. From a broader perspective, I think we do the same thing when discussing truth, religion and politics. We ignore the inevitable and believe the illogical.
Of course it is possible you already know this. If this is the case, then I just wish that you would think about your stances and be honest with the consequences of your worldviews. Stop borrowing from other people’s worldviews, and vigorously seek the truth.