Moral Absolutism: True Or False?
Moral Absolutes
In this paper, I will argue that the ethical belief of moral absolutism is false because not all actions are always right and wrong like killing, abortion, and stealing.
Moral absolutism is a belief that there are absolute standards against which moral question can be Judged, and that certain actions are always right or wrong, regardless of the reasoning behind the certain action. This is the main category of deontological ethics. Deontology bases an act’s morality on its adherence to rules. All of the deontological ethic categories believe that moral absolutes do exist, not all of them believe that morality lies in the act alone. This would mean that every decision you make is similar to the black and white fallacy. …show more content…
As a christian I do tend to believe that Jesus christ, whom I chose to follow as my spiritual leader seems to be on the moral absolutist side. Reading throughout the bible and ten commandments, it comes across that he thinks that our actions are either right or wrong. Although I don't particularly think this way about everything, I do know that God will forgive me for any sins I do make.
For example, is killing someone always wrong? I and many others can agree that murdering someone is very wrong and a terrible crime, but I do not think it is always wrong when committed. It is clearly wrong when someone has gotten abducted and murdered for absolutely no reason, that is a crime and if you were the one to have committed that murder you should have to pay for it. I believe that some people may argue with me and say that it is a moral absolute that killing someone is always wrong, but I tend to disagree. For example; …show more content…
It can be as small as stealing a piece of bubble gum from the candy shop, or stealing thousands of dollars from a national bank. Is there ever a time when stealing is the right thing to do? For example; if you know that your child who is already moved out of the house is doing drugs and drinking alchol all of them time, would it be acceptable to sneak in to his apartment and steal of of the things that he is beginning to become addicted to? In this case I would say that it is the right thing to do to steal all of his drugs and alcohol, because you are trying to save your child from causing more harm to their life. Many parent's worst nightmare is watching their kids lives be taken by alcohol and drugs, and many may just go to the extreme to steal it from their apartments and get rid of it. Many of my peers would say stealing is wrong in every single case, but what about stealing food for your starving family, or even band aids from your local drug store because your daughter is bleeding terribly? A moral absolutist would say that if you steal to keep from starving, what you did was wrong, because it's stealing and stealing was wrong. Although my christian values tell me stealing is wrong and the bible when it states “thou shalt not steal”, I can still justify that not all stealing is wrong when stealing to
In this paper, I will argue that the ethical belief of moral absolutism is false because not all actions are always right and wrong like killing, abortion, and stealing.
Moral absolutism is a belief that there are absolute standards against which moral question can be Judged, and that certain actions are always right or wrong, regardless of the reasoning behind the certain action. This is the main category of deontological ethics. Deontology bases an act’s morality on its adherence to rules. All of the deontological ethic categories believe that moral absolutes do exist, not all of them believe that morality lies in the act alone. This would mean that every decision you make is similar to the black and white fallacy. …show more content…
As a christian I do tend to believe that Jesus christ, whom I chose to follow as my spiritual leader seems to be on the moral absolutist side. Reading throughout the bible and ten commandments, it comes across that he thinks that our actions are either right or wrong. Although I don't particularly think this way about everything, I do know that God will forgive me for any sins I do make.
For example, is killing someone always wrong? I and many others can agree that murdering someone is very wrong and a terrible crime, but I do not think it is always wrong when committed. It is clearly wrong when someone has gotten abducted and murdered for absolutely no reason, that is a crime and if you were the one to have committed that murder you should have to pay for it. I believe that some people may argue with me and say that it is a moral absolute that killing someone is always wrong, but I tend to disagree. For example; …show more content…
It can be as small as stealing a piece of bubble gum from the candy shop, or stealing thousands of dollars from a national bank. Is there ever a time when stealing is the right thing to do? For example; if you know that your child who is already moved out of the house is doing drugs and drinking alchol all of them time, would it be acceptable to sneak in to his apartment and steal of of the things that he is beginning to become addicted to? In this case I would say that it is the right thing to do to steal all of his drugs and alcohol, because you are trying to save your child from causing more harm to their life. Many parent's worst nightmare is watching their kids lives be taken by alcohol and drugs, and many may just go to the extreme to steal it from their apartments and get rid of it. Many of my peers would say stealing is wrong in every single case, but what about stealing food for your starving family, or even band aids from your local drug store because your daughter is bleeding terribly? A moral absolutist would say that if you steal to keep from starving, what you did was wrong, because it's stealing and stealing was wrong. Although my christian values tell me stealing is wrong and the bible when it states “thou shalt not steal”, I can still justify that not all stealing is wrong when stealing to