As you know, I’ve been do
ing a podcast series on relativism. I began the series by examining relativism writ large, demonstrating why it’s false that we can’t know any truth at all. Then I moved on to explore the claim that we can’t know moral truth. Now I’m in the last phase of the series, exploring the application of relativism to religion. Religious relativism (RR) holds that religious truth cannot be known (or does not exist), so religions can only be true in a relative sense of the word.
I discuss three different forms of RR, how RR impacts the religious conversation, the reasons people subscribe to RR, and offer an extended critique of the view. Catch the latest episodes at https://thinkingtobelieve.buzzsprout.com or listen wherever you get your podcasts from.
Thinking to Believe 
March 3, 2023 at 10:44 am
How hard is it to beat a dead horse that does not actually exist?
Another phantasmic Evangelical boogeyman to grift off of ignorant and gullible religious people
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March 3, 2023 at 1:01 pm
Well, if God can commit or endorse atrocities (like murder and genocide, animal and human sacrifice, torture, child and animal abuse, theft, slavery, rape, forced incest, cannibalism, betrayal and lying, as it says in the Bible) and is considered “good,” while a human who commits those same behaviors is considered “evil,” then morality is relative…because it means that morality is based on WHO you are, rather than WHAT you do.
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March 3, 2023 at 1:40 pm
Derek,
Great comment!
The whole “relative” morality thing is a phantom – except as practiced by evangelicals – they swap out morality at their convenience.
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March 4, 2023 at 1:54 am
Thanks. I’ve never understood the obsession with absolute morality. Not only is in not biblical (otherwise God would never have endorsed slavery), but it’s clear morality evolves through time and doesn’t have the same standards in every culture. The best standard for “evil” behavior I’ve found is behavior that deliberately and unnecessarily causes harm or suffering. Avoid that and you’re well on the way to developing a better morality than is found in the Bible—regardless of whether one wants to label that absolute or relative.
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March 4, 2023 at 8:51 am
Derek, Jesus is the complete revelation of God and his moral character. Heb 1:3. If you want to know God, all you have to do read about Jesus, what he did and said. If we see God doing or saying something that is different than the God we see revealed in Jesus on the cross, then something else is going on.
https://reknew.org/2017/07/two-questions-unlock-violent-divine-portraits/
https://reknew.org/2017/07/four-principles-cruciform-thesis/
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March 4, 2023 at 11:58 pm
I would recommend you read the entire Bible, cover-to-cover—not just the “nice” parts—if you want to understand the moral nature of God. It’s his BEHAVIOR, not the CLAIMS made about him, that reveal his evil nature.
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March 5, 2023 at 1:27 pm
Derek
Thanks for keeping the conversation real – rather than specious and disingenuous obscurations of human evil using the name of Yahweh….as we see down to this day in white American evangelicalism using the name of Jesus for its destructive and, given the chance, violent oppression.
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