Absolutely Relative

Many folks like to say they don't believe in moral absolutes. Maybe it's supposed to sound tolerant and open-minded. Or maybe absolutes are inconvenient to them. At any rate, there are problems with such claim, in principle and in application.

At the level of principle, to say there are no absolutes is self-contradictory. Saying there are no moral absolutes is, itself, stating a moral absolute.

And people who are wont to say this tend to show in practice that they don't really believe. Let some one steal something from them or hurt them and they will demonstrate what they really believe.

Another point at which moral relativism breaks down is with what might be called human monsters. By this I mean heinously murderous leaders such as Adolph Hitler, or Joseph Stalin, or Pol Pot (I could keep going) or terrorists or more "ordinary" serial killers or rapists. If there truly are no absolutes, there is no basis to condemn or take such monsters out of this world. None! And to do so is an act every bit as criminal as each crime they committed!

Moral relativism can be made to sound nice and fuzzy and tolerant, but reality and real life are not very kind to it. Moral relativism doesn't really work, and even those who claim to believe it readily show they do not.