Friday, April 9, 2010

Relatively speaking ...

"That's what you believe."
"It's all relative."
"There are no absolutes."


Those three statements belong to the philosophy called relativism, a philosophy that dominates our culture. What is relativism all about, anyway?

Relativism is all about no absolutes. Let's look at the implications of relativism as we see three fatal contradictions in the philosophy of relativism.
1. Absolutely no absolutes
Relativism confidently asserts that there are absolutely no absolutes. Absolutely no absolutes? I don't think so.
2. Intolerance
Often relativists will boast in their tolerance of other religions and scold Christianity for their intolerance. Do you see now? There is one thing that relativism can't tolerate: intolerance.
3. Right and wrong
If everything is simply preference, since there are no absolutes, then justice, peace and liberty are all preferences. Some people might prefer to violate those preferences, because their preferences aren't the same as other people's preferences.

Relativism is inadequate as a philosophy because it violates its own principles.

1 comment:

  1. Great! For me, one of the best ways to put down Relativism is to say, 'When they say there are no absolutes, that's an absolute!'

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