The Irrelevant Relativism Recap:
By this time we've established two clear and distinct moral paths. Relativism is the path that tells people that it's not good to push your moral views on anyone else. It tells us that morals are subjective and are up to the individual. You don't have to be much of a thinker to realize that this can only really exist in a state of silence. Once you open your mouth to give someone your opinion on the subject of morals you have made an exit from true relativism into the land of personal opinion. The only way you can openly discuss morals and speak the truth is to have something external to ground them in. For the Christian this truth is grounded in scripture, and this scripture is inerrant and was given to us by an intelligent designer. Relativism, by it's very nature, is irrelevant in a moral conversation. It simply doesn't exist unless in exercised in silence.
Extreme Morality:
I've quickly learned that when you study philosophy of any kind that the best way to examine it is by taking it to extreme levels of practice and seeing where they lead. I didn't invent this line of thinking, this is what all great philosophers do. I'm simply going to replicate a process that's been around for centuries. For the believer, with their morals grounded in scripture and given by an intelligent designer, the application of all Biblical morality is, well, Jesus Christ himself. We all know that we fall short of this goal, but we get up day after day trying to live life like Christ would. We want to respond to adversity like Christ did. We call this process sanctification, and we have help in living this out from the Holy Spirit through reading and application of scripture. Living out Biblical morality is challenging, but it's the goal in the pursuit of holiness. I fall short every day of my life. There isn't a day where I go to sleep knowing that I was perfect that day, but I'm forgiven for every sin, past, present and future.
A similar comparison, yet substituted with relativism is going to sound harsh and probably arrogant. I want to make sure that you understand that I'm addressing it from a point of love and not condemnation, because today's relativist could be tomorrow's Christian. If you've been around a church long enough you're heard the phrase "don't hate the sinner hate the sin." The same logic applies here. I don't despise the relativist, I despise the moral implications that relativism has on the world. I don't want my children raised in a world where the big decisions in life are left to their own personal opinions. Which is why, as a father, this subject gives me a great deal of angst. With all that being said, the champion of relativism is ultimately a sociopath. Now a good person can still claim relativism without ever having actually applied it to all of it's extremes, but I'm pushing those extremes to demonstrate where it can lead. If you're a relativist then you can't really judge those extremes to any degree, otherwise you cease to be a relativist and you then must contend that morals are universal. This doesn't automatically make you a Christian by any stretch. It just means that you've given up your stance on moral neutrality and you now have to find a new standard for truth. I contend that scripture is that truth. A person that does whatever they want, to whoever they want, whenever they want, to any degree that they see fit, is a full on card carrying relativist. Depending on their wants and their personal degree of application (which again the true relativist cannot judge) this could be disastrous.
I offered you Jesus as a historical example of biblical morals exercised to their fullest extreme, so it's only fair that I offer you the same example for relativism. That example is Adolph Hitler. At Auschwitz, Hitler declared, "I freed Germany from the stupid and degrading fallacies of conscience and morality....We will train young people before whom the world will tremble." You see, Adolph Hitler applied relativism to get to where he was morally. He put extreme relativism on display for the world to see. To the true relativist you cannot condemn Hitler for his actions. He was simply doing what he thought was right. He lived out his morals to the extreme. You see morality grounded in scripture explains things that you otherwise couldn't. If morality is a byproduct of evolutionary chance, then why do we feel satisfaction when justice is dispersed? Why do we rejoice in the punishment of our guilty while applauding the reward of the righteous? The answer is simple, we are image bearers of a God of justice and punishment. Evolution couldn't get us here. Evolution sides with Hitler. Kill the weak for the advancement for the strong.
Our Options:
By now someone that's reading this is thinking that there have to be other options. Surely I'm not saying that everyone on the planet is either morally aligned with either Jesus Christ or Adolph Hitler, but in reality that's exactly what I'm saying. Again these were the extreme examples of morality in practice, not simply two men that debated morality. In the book Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted In Mid-air, co written by Francis Beckwith and Gregory Koukl, they lay out the options you have for establishing morality. " Faced with a limited number of options, we must chose something. When the full range of choices is clear, rejection of one means acceptance of another. Our options are limited to three. One: Morality is simply an illusion. Two: Moral rules exist but are mere accidents, the product of chance. Three: Moral rules are not accidents but are the products of intelligence." They also point out why relativism is so attractive. " Relativists seem to think if they can get rid of both morality and God, then guilt and judgement will disappear as well. It's like saying if we can eliminate doctors and hospitals, then disease and suffering will disappear too."
In Conclusion:
I want to convey something in closing about apologetics in general so you can get the big picture. Morality alone is not the show stopper when defending your beliefs. It's merely one weapon in a very vast arsenal. You won't show someone the fullness of the Gospel by simply arguing that your moral roots make more sense than theirs. Somehow though, morality always finds its way into the discussion, and rightfully so. I believe that if you can show someone that your morals are grounded in a submission to scripture, and you can do so in a loving manner, then you can open their eyes a bit more. Remaining humble is crucial. How many times have you heard a believer say something along these lines; "Homosexuality is sinful and wrong," while never really expounding on the subject or explaining where this stance came from? You see, homosexuality is a sin according to the Bible, but so is gluttony, lying, stealing, heterosexual lust, and fifty other things that you did today. God doesn't rank our sins, we do. So instead of addressing morals from a lofty position of arrogant personal opinion while attaching Bible verses to support your argument, you need to show morality with a side of love and understanding. We all fall short of the glory of God. None of us meet His criteria for perfection. So when you put your moral position out there it's important to do so from a humble position of submission. Apologetics isn't about winning the debate with the office atheist. True Christian apologetics is about making a defense on what you believe and why with an end result of providing rationality to our worldview, and should always be birthed from a desire to advance the Gospel. As Lee Strobel once said, "Christians have an unfair advantage in the marketplace of ideas. We've got truth on our side."
This concludes the topic of relativism. I hope that I've done a decent job of getting Relativism pulled into the light. If I haven't then you need to know that I'm the limitation, not the subject matter. This is all my limited knowledge allows me to write, but I can offer numerous study materials that will take you much deeper if you want. Simply leave me a comment and I will point you in the right direction. Overall I hope you can see the devastation that this worldview can unleash if we aren't aggressive in attacking it on the front lines.
Going Forward:
The plan is to proceed by offering you more weaponry. I do plan to get into more historical and scientific topics as they relate to defending Christianity. My next series will stay a bit more on the philosophical side of things though. I will do my best to explain the absurdity of a life lived without God. Like this last post, it will go to extremes to show you where full blown atheism leads and why it's such a terrifying path for the world to wander into blindly.