Ethics and Religion; Ethical Relativism

In “Ethics and Religion; Ethical Relativism” the author talks about how you can’t base morality just off of religion.  “There are many different religions, each with its own revealed set of moral precepts” (10).  Every religion has different beliefs on what is right and what is wrong.  “Orthodox Jews and Muslims consider eating pork to be a great sin, whereas Christians do not even consider it a moral issue.  Christians typically do not consider killing nonhuman animals for food to be morally problematic, whereas for a Jain to kill any living thing is a serious act of moral degeneracy” (10).  The beliefs of all these different religions throughout the world cause people to believe different things are morally right as well as which are morally wrong.  Christians used to think it was acceptable to kill those who didn’t believe in their Christ, which cause many Jewish deaths.  While other religions are completely opposed to war and would never do that.  Morality cannot solely be based off of religion because they all have different moral beliefs. 

Different cultures, just like religion, cause people to have different morals as well.  Within different societies people are treated differently and have to undergo different tasks to be accepted into their community.  These might seem morally wrong to some.  There is a tribe in the Amazon that makes boys stick their hands this thing with a whole bunch of bullet ants, which sting him over and over again and it feels like he is on fire because the pain is so bad, in order to prove he is a man.  If he cries though he has to do it again until he finally does it without a tear.  We would find this to be extremely immoral and wrong but this tribe thinks it is a right and passage to manhood.  Morals cannot be based off of any one category because everyone has different ideas on what they are.