Cultural Relativism and Morale

What is truth? What is right and wrong, and why shouldn’t I be able to dictate what I find right and wrong? And who gets to decide what the truth is? Doesn’t it all depend on an individual’s own upbringing, culture, beliefs, values etc? This kind of thinking is referred to as cultural relativism. It states that morale is relative to individual people and the experiences (etc) that brought them to their decisions and opinions. Cultural relativism is popular in the present world, either because people want to be respectful to religions, they believe that there are more ways to spirituality, or any other reasons. This may come from a good place, but is ultimately not logical or applicable.

Let’s first look at the claim: “Nothing is good / bad, it depends on upbringing and culture”. Of course we are all influenced by our culture and upbringing. The way we were / are affected in day-to-day life obviously has an impact on how we view the world. If this relative view on morale were true however, we would have to excuse everything as “morally okay” as someone or some culture allows it. Things like e.g. honour killings would be fine since a culture has accepted / actively practises it. Someone could justify burning down houses and killing babies (maybe in respect to a culture or tradition), and nobody could say anything about it. Relativists may say that there is no right and wrong, it’s all in culture and upbringing, but anyone faced with having to be indifferent to these things will ultimately believe something is morally wrong, therefore undermining their relativism.

Sure, people might have morals, but not everyone agrees on them. “Maybe things are subjective, but there is no way of knowing the objective truth, so everything can be true.” If we follow logic, two things that are contrary to each other cannot both be true. This is a reason as to why cultural relativism ultimately doesn’t work. Charles can’t be both married and a bachelor, just as Susan can’t be both dead and alive. Following this logic, it cannot be true that e.g. human sacrifice is okay and that it is a violation of human rights. So as for everything being an absolute truth; it is illogical and cannot be. Two subjective truths that do not align cannot both be true. There must be one truth- an objective truth. Beliefs will not change this objective truth, no matter how strong one may believe it. A person who believes something other than the truth is not in the right just because they think they are. Anyone else would call that delusion.

So what is this objective truth? One could sit many hours and ponder this question with no avail. It makes sense that there be one truth, but how do I pick which one it is? Simple answer; you don’t.  As stated in “Truth: Absolute or Relative” by Evidence and Answers:

• Truth is discovered, not invented

• Truth is transcultural

• Truth is unchanging

• Beliefs cannot change a truth statement no matter how sincere one may be

• Truth is unaffected by the attitude of the one professing it

• All truths are absolute

• Truth is knowable

Truth is objective no matter how one feels about the concept and the objective truth. If you made up facts about bears, it wouldn’t be true, it would be false news. Why would this not count for all other truths as well? Truths are also absolute, which means it’s true whether or not you want it to be. Just because you believe there is an objective truth still does not mean you can pick what that means. If it is objective, it counts for everyone despite.

Following the previous rules, let’s take a look at Christianity; God has decided what is good and what is evil. It transcends culture, time and personal beliefs that would state otherwise. His truths are absolute; e.g. you shouldn’t cheat on your partner no matter how you twist and turn it. It is morally wrong, end of story. These truths are also knowable as they have been given to us through stories and instruction in the Bible. Think of the ten commandments, Jesus’ own life and so on. If God created everything, why would he not know what was best for his creation?

In conclusion, cultural relativism, no matter how attractive or right it may seem, does not work out. In addition to that, God is objectively true even if He is not believed to be true, as belief will not change subjective fact.

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Resources

Dickinson, Travis M. “There is Something about Relativism”. https://www.equip.org/articles/theres-something-relativism/ 

Koukl, Greg. “Five Fatal Flaws of Moral Relativism”. https://www.str.org/w/five-fatal-flaws-of-moral-relativism 

Sire, James."Why good arguments often fail: making a more persuasive case for Christ", Chapter 8.

Tay, Joel and Keaton Haley. “Cultural Relativism and Morality”. https://creation.com/cultural-relativism 

Vampatella, John. "Is Everything Relative". https://www.cru.org/sg/en/train-and-grow/share-the-gospel/obstacles-to-faith/is-everything-relative.html

Zukeran, Patrick. “Truth: Absolute or Relative”. https://evidenceandanswers.org/article/truth-absolute-or-relative/