Ethics, Religion, Morality

In "Metaethical Issues", the author speaks about religion and how it often plays a major role in the shaping of one's morals (8). I definitely agree with the author in the sense that religion shapes what one views as right or wrong, however, it is often difficult to accept every religion as morally sound when there are vast varieties of religions that exist today. Although moral relativism exists, as the author states, and it's goal is to "promote tolerance" (13), it seems this idea is impossible in our present society. In the United States, for example, our society is generally good at tolerating and trying to better understand other cultures, religions, etc. which would seem to be the moral relativists dream come true. However, we must focus more on the level of tolerance present due to the fact that the U.S. does in fact have military forces in other countries because the country felt that other cultures were "unethical" or "immoral".

The author does describe that each culture varies and that "these different moral perspectives frequently clash" (12), however, the author also states that "apparently we must respect and accept whatever values a given society embraces" (16). Is this to say then, that as humans we should accept the values that ISIS has just because they are a culture different from what we consider the norm? In my eyes, there are certain ethical standards that majority of cultures, religions, societies, etc. embrace that should be universal, such as the fact that it is morally wrong to kill a person. In instances where a moral code seems to have been broken, such as the U.S.'s perspective on ISIS, we should not respect and accept the values of the given society because what is happening is unethical. The slaughtering of innocent people to please a higher power (God) is, in majority of cases, looked down upon and seen as unethical, and by not stepping in to make the "evil" stop, we would be just as unethical as the killers, simply because we are allowing innocent people to die without fighting back.