Anytime a belief system which is comprised of any number of morals becomes an accepted social norm, and we fail as individuals to embark upon our own research, we counter our own God given free will. To put this differently, every human being openly accepting ideologies of ethical relativism due to socioeconomic statuses and sociopsychological forces which are intangible that, fails to utilize their own God given talents creates a learned behavioral pattern of morphing into a creature of habit. The very genesis of our sole human individuality is created by God, and is lucidly illustrated in the New Testament with the detailed descriptions of the various spiritual gifts in the passages of Romans 12, I Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, and I Peter 4. In view of the spiritual gifts, let us examine the gift of faith.
To begin with, generally speaking, both Christians and non-believers have had faith at one time in their lives because at one time or another all humans have to have believed in something even at the subconscious level. For example, each human being that takes a breath just accepts that their lungs will work the same throughout each inhale and exhale until death. This example contains fundamental substance because it is universally understood that mankind needs to breathe to be alive or the end result is inevitably death itself. The real key here is that humans utilized their God given free will to research, and explore how the functions of the human body worked. It is important to remember that understanding the science of the human body did not occur overnight. It was a slow process that took years to come together via science, but was only allowed through God’s blessing as time pushed forward. A sound contention can be made here that ethical relativism regarding lung function and death exist, but only because individuals used their God given free will combined with faith to learn. It can be stated that if similarities in personal ethics are found to exist, it is only because free will has been utilized with the intent of exhausting all avenues of research.
Additionally, this same logic holds true when examining the lives of Ghandi, St. Francis, or Abraham. We can simply accept their ethical baselines using ethical relativism, but we then open the door to accept anything without utilizing the pillars of research which includes to manage, to evaluate, to present, to gather, to identify, to plan, and to scope. “Each pillar is further described by a series of statements relating to a set of skills/competencies and a set of attitudes/understandings. It is expected that as a person becomes more information literate they will demonstrate more of the attributes in each pillar and so move towards the top of the pillar”(Bent, Stubbings and SCONUL).
Moving forward, with the spiritual gift of faith in mind, we can use the pillars of literacy to examine the life of Abraham. If one so chooses, they can use ethical relativism and just accept that faith was a practical aspect of the life of Abraham. Indeed faith was a practical aspect of the life of Abraham, but by solely accepting without research they would miss all of the fruits of faith. Abraham’s life teaches us faith by patience, faith by discipline, faith by courage, faith by strength, faith by fear, faith by wisdom, and faith by trust to name a few. It is this writer’s submission that ethical relativism when accepted only plants a seed thus promoting acceptance of everything. If a farmer plants various seeds in the same location within the ground, then plants would not have enough room to grow. They would eventually smother one another and wilt away. This same logic can be applied to matriarchal and patriarchal societies. Bloody Mary, Catherine the Great, Nero, and Mao Zedong all committed horrific acts as leaders in power. Since mankind is able to discern and accept that these tyrants were evil under the context of ethical relativism there was an element of research utilized to reach such a conclusion. Had research not been put into practice here, ethical relativism could have grouped these people together, and reached the conclusion that all leaders are dictators which is false. Fallacies often hide between two truths which is the reason why research needs to be put in motion.
Ultimately, let’s take a closer examination of the roots of the United States. Did the United States as a pluralistic culture ever fully have Puritan roots? Research within history dictates this is not true, but there is an ethical relativistic belief that it was. It is important to note that the European Reformation and Renaissance Era was a continuation of the Great European Expansion time frame in history which began in the year 1000 A.D. The Monastic, Mendicant, and Protestant Reformations which occurred throughout Europe greatly influenced the interpretation of religious worship, education, and ultimately culture over the course of time. These three reformations repeatedly challenged the accepted social norms of ethical relativism of the time, and created a plethora of new ideologies which sprung across the European continent.
In addition, philosophers established ideologies such as humanism and new utopian sentiments while the struggle to separate religion from governments took place. We begin to see the results of these various ideologies early on connected to the ties they held with each early settlement in the New World. The Puritan ideology was just one of many which led to various settlements. By the same token, the Doctrine of Discovery which was decreed by the Pope in 1493 promoted colonization and sovereignty for the European colonists while limiting the political voices of the Indigenous Peoples on the North American continent. This established decree by the Pope is an example of a historical ethical relativistic principle which was shared by many of the colonists. After the American Revolution, we begin to see the older utopian ideologies which sprung up in Europe begin to take a foothold in the Americas. As America grew larger with an expanding population in the early 1800’s, many dissenting beliefs arose about freedom causing the Age of Reform in the United States. The most common groups were the Owenites, the Amish, the Shakers, and the Oneidas.
Equally relevant, is that the history of the United States has forced the Native American culture to evolve, and battle two important sociological factors known as pluralism and assimilation through the ethical relativistic accepted belief of imperialism. The very genesis of these ideologies (imperialism, assimilation, pluralism etc..) in the United States came from the three Reformations within Europe. Humanism versus God was a substantial factor back then, and these can both be labeled as their own ethical relativistic ideologies. Interestingly enough, these same two ethical relativistic ideologies (humanism vs God) exists way back in Genesis 2-3 when Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the forbidden tree. Satan did not have to tempt Eve to eat the apple. Satan only tempted Eve to use her free will to live free of God. The fall of mankind is humanism versus God. The same battle of ethical relativistic perspectives continues today all throughout the world. The same battles of ethical relativism the colonists brought to the North American continent also remain prevalent today. Did the Reformation Era ever really end? Has Jesus thrown Satan into the bottomless pit yet? The answers exist in the research not in the ethical relativistic principles themselves.
Works Cited
Bent, Moira, Ruth Stubbings and SCONUL Working Group on Information Literacy. “The SCONUL Working Group on Information Literacy.” 2011. SCONUL Information Literacy. <https://www.sconul.ac.uk/sites/default/files/documents/coremodel.pdf>.
