Summary Of Beyond Bumper Sticker Ethics

748 Words3 Pages
When approaching an ethical question, one must take into consideration not only our own view of right and wrong, but also cultural norms and widely accepted worldviews. Greatest good for the greatest number for example is a view that is held by many, but not all. The purpose of this paper is to take Steve Wilkens’ book, Beyond Bumper Sticker Ethics, and study each “bumper sticker” slogan, the meaning behind them, critique the conclusions, and choose the view that best fits our worldview. In doing this, one must take into consideration that not every view expressed by the writer is completely right and culturally accepted. This is the purpose of the paper: to review the author’s theories and to decide for myself if they are in fact valid…show more content…
In our culture, one is brought up to believe that tolerance is morally right. Therefore, it is our cultures’ moral standard that we must tolerate the beliefs, religions, and moral convictions of others. By saying that the purpose of cultural relativism is to keep everything relative, then we are contradicting ourselves by implying that we must be tolerant. This view, however it may be accepted in our culture, probably is not held in all other cultures. For example, our culture holds that tolerance is a virtue. But if there is even one culture where tolerance is not held as a moral standard, then cultural relativism is only a standard for our specific culture and therefore cannot be applied to any worldview in whole. This reason negates any possibility of applying cultural relativism to anyone except ourselves. In addition to all of this, cultural relativism has another fault. When looking at ethical situations in the light of the Christian lens, there is a certain bias that is applied, but for good reason. We know that God is supreme and that there are, in fact, moral absolutes that are applied to society as a whole. God does not require Christians to be tolerant. In fact, we are to be intolerant of wrong moral beliefs, decided by our Most High God, of course. However, it is specifically stated that we are to in essence “hate the sin, not the sinner.” So tolerance, according to God, is to accept all people for who they are and not what they believe. But cultural relativism cannot exist in the light of God’s supreme absolute moral standards. One may argue that we cannot use God as an excuse for every argument. But as Christians, we know that we must. Not because it is culturally accepted, but because God has set for us certain rules and regulations, whether explicit or

    More about Summary Of Beyond Bumper Sticker Ethics

      Open Document