The Disaster of Moral Absolutism by John Bryant
1) Bryant, John. "The Disaster of Moral Absolutism." Birdman Bryant: The World's Most Controversial Author. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. <http://www.thebirdman.org/Index/Relig/Relig- MoralAbsolutism.html>.
2) Many people who are conservative or religious often believe in absolute moral values. This means that the morals that they own are unchanging, usually prescribed by God. It is a false belief which has resulted in wrong conclusions and misbehavior. Moral relativists believe that certain moral values can be altered in order to apply them to certain situations. They believe that the rules of morality have the ability to change.
The moral absolutists are usually able to provide a solid list of "shalls and shall nots." Relativists offer a similar list of shalls and shall nots but with that list comes certain qualifications for each. An example of where absolutists are wrong are where they support the religious Commandment of "Thou shalt not kill." Many conservatives recognize exceptions in this. For example, killing in war and killing in self defense. They usually alter the recitation of the Commandment by casually saying "thou shalt not murder."
It is important to realize that morality is not absolute. Morality changes with time and during certain situations. A good example of change in morality over time is the value of human life. A long time ago when the human population was small, human life was very valuable, but not as the human population continues to grow passed the Earth's capacity, the value of human life has significantly decreased.
3) This source is relevant to Absolutism because it deals with absolute morality versus relative morality. It explores the concept of both and points out the flaws of an unchanging morality.
4) " the difference between moral absolutism and moral relativism may be said to be that while both provide a list of "shalls" and "shall nots", moral relativism also provides a list of qualifications -- ie, cases where a particular "shall" or "shall not" does not apply -- while moral absolutism recognizes no exceptions"
" it is important to realize that morality is not absolute, it is even more important to realize that it changes with times and situations"
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