THE MYTH OF MORAL RELATIVISM
"If there is no God, everything is permitted." - Fyodor Dostoevsky
The argument:
For ethics to be meaningful there must be justice. Otherwise, why be concerned at all. And if there must be justice then there must be a judge to hold the people accountable. Right and wrong are clues to the meaning of life, but might does not make right. Unity of ideas does not make right. A majority vote does-not-make-right.
The counter point:
In the secular humanist society in which we live today, its proponents argue that the absence of religious dogma allows for a more flexible and inclusive framework of moral principles. Reason, empathy, and existentialism are thought to be the modern progressive gods. Preference has replaced duty. And special interests has replaced law. They live and breathe on the idea that you cannot legislate morality. They go with the flow, like a herd. It's the herd mentality. It lacks any moral courage.
The Ultimate Truth:
True unity comes together in a unified faith founded upon the justice of our God and not that of the mob.
So, what should we legislate?
Should we legislate?
Should we have laws against anything? Murder, theft, immorality?
If everything is relative, why have law? [The Libertarian View]
We've seen this before:
Judges 17:6 "In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes."
In Judges, chapters 17-20, we have a perfect example of how these things work out in a civilization. And not just limited to nations, but to any community of people that are striving to find moral justification for its ethical rules for thinking and determining how they should know what truth is.
Truth
What is the truth is a metaphysical question. Who is the truth is a theological question. How does the truth relate to me and define me is an anthropological question. And how does the truth direct my actions is an ethical question. These are the necessary elements for understanding a moral culture. And we need to have them answered clearly and correctly so that we can understand how a flawed amoral system can creep into our lives and distort our moral character. As far as Christians are concerned, the church of course is always plagued by error, we must have weeds among us, The Lord told us it must be this way, but outright heresy cannot simply be ignored. We must defend the truth even as the weeds tangle us up. Someone must stand on the ground of divine truth and justice in order to maintain our ethics, and not mainstream, erroneous Christian freedom. Otherwise, the doctrine divides and chaos will destroy the faith.
Every civilized culture throughout history has been built upon either a philosophy, a religion, or a mythology. Our modern civilization is based upon moral relativism and it's a myth. It's a myth because its foundation is not real. It is founded upon relativism and liberal unbelief.
Story time:
Let's take a look back at the history of Israel. And in particular a character named Micah. He lived in the hill country of Ephraim. His mother had put a curse on the unknown thief who stole her silver. Micah, living in fear of her curse, repents and admits to her that he stole it. Her reaction is kindness and compassion, she doesn't demand justice but instead blesses him for coming clean, and she even goes so far as to have an idol cast and dedicated, celebrating his newfound reformation. In fact, she uses some of the silver to make this idol.
Later on, Micah sets up an altar shrine for the idol in his home, and this begins a radical transformation of his moral character, at least on the surface. He sets up his house church. He installs a personal priest for his household.
Judges 17:12-13
"So, Micah installed the Levite as his personal priest, and he lived in Micah’s house. 'I know the Lord will bless me now,' Micah said, 'because I have a Levite serving as my priest.'"
And all seems well and good for a while. Maybe too well and good. His household thrives and wealth multiplies. He truly is blessed.
Some travelers come along one day, and they spy all this existential and spiritual bliss. And they go back to their people and then return with a large marauding horde of thieves and they "talk" his priest into coming away with them, and bringing the idol as well, thinking that maybe this is what has prospered Micah. The priest seems amenable to the idea.
Judges 18:20 "The young priest was quite happy to go with them, so he took along the sacred ephod, the household idols, and the carved image."
Later, Micah and his neighborhood posse come chasing after the horde. He charges them for justice and they basically tell him, "you've got this tiny band of people and we've got this massive gang of hardened criminals, it sure would be a sad thing if something bad were to happen to you." Micah sees that might does in fact make right, and so he moves along. And that's that.
Meanwhile, as time goes along these marauders take town after town and village after village and finally make their way to the valley near Beth-rehob. They destroy everything, they conquer the people there, and they rebuild and named it after their own ancestors, but they also included in that new order, the now institutionalized worship of Micah's idol.
Judges 18:31 "Micah’s carved image was worshiped by the tribe of Dan as long as the Tabernacle of God remained at Shiloh."
And so it goes. What started out as a small community of believers, people doing what seemed right and just in their own eyes, eventually, due to might makes right, became the doctrine of the church at large.
An idol-a myth-a doctrine.
They learned to coexist. They valued the peace that seemed to come through this unity with the mob. They went along to get along. And they developed into their ethical habits a morality of justification founded on might makes right, the majority rule. In order to keep the peace, their families, their communities, their nation, became unified by this perverted conquest principle. They even ordained it. And eventually it became a kingdom under Jeroboam, that earned him the epithet “he who caused Israel to sin” (1Kings 12:25-33)
This is what comes from the myth of moral relativity...a perverted substitute, a caricature of the sacred. An arrogant anarchism testifying to the absence of any true divine substance in a time when everyone did as he saw fit.
And we see it today. All these mobs claiming to be truly moral and ethical churches and nations and doing what they see as fit. All failing in their missions through compromise. Like Micah's Levite priest, they follow after the powerful and subvert justice for the powerless. And as is often the case, they set up their monuments to commemorate their new mob idol's assistance. They paint the roads with their idols, and their leaders dress in strange performative attire, and some even adopt culturally nuanced speech patterns to try and fit in with the masses.
Final thoughts:
It is said by some that the mob is speaking a "fundamental truth" as they wreak havoc on cities and communities around the globe. These progressive liberal thinkers go on to say that the murder of unborn children is a "fundamental right". They're doing and saying what seems "fundamentally" right to them. They want the fundamental transformation of the truth. Transformed into their relative truth.
And those who object to these radical ideas?
Well...they're just weird.
“These are weird people on the other side,” V.P. candidate Tim Walz said.
"If there is no God, everything is permitted." - Fyodor Dostoevsky
And you're the weird one if God is the foundation of your truth.