Everything in this world is relative.

Recently I had a conversation with few of my good friend while driving home.
During our general talk I suddenly heard a statement that “Everything in this world is relative, there are no absolutes” That topic continued to the rest of our discussion.

Here my friend says the “Everything, weather good or bad is relative to that person” then I asked him. Is killing a human being is right or wrong? He says there is nothing right or wrong in it. It may be wrong to me but right to others.

Did you notice that? My friend and many people who believe in relativism blindly make this mistake.
Here my friend is making an absolute statement that “Everything in this world is relative, there are no absolutes”.
He is making a statement which itself is absolute. He is trying to prove that there are no absolutes by an absolute statement.
Relativism does not cohere. It denies a fundamental principle of logic known as Aristotle’s principle of non-contradiction. Aristotle’s principle says that a statement cannot be both true and false at the same time.
You cannot make a statement that “Everything in this world is relative, there are no absolutes” and proving that false by making that absolute statement.

In order to accept relativism, one has to abandon this fundamental principle of logic and everything based upon it. Therefore, not only is relativism in itself incoherent, but also, to accept it, we have to lose the solid basis for all logic. That is the road to madness.
People say ‘It may be true for you but it isn’t true for me.’
‘You can’t say that is wrong; it might be wrong for you, but it’s right for me.’
These are common statements we hear from people who believe in relativism these days.

Although many people accept relativism, however, most do not know what it is. This isn’t a philosophy that they have thoughtfully considered and then accepted. Rather, it is simply one in which they are immersed day by day as they learn from relativistic teachers, read relativistic magazines and watch relativistic television. Relativism, then, has become so internalized that it is not just something people believe, but simply the way in which they think.

Though our conversation sadly did not end in a meaningful conclusion as I was not able to focus well while driving. I had some thoughts later.

If I apply relativism to this scenario that I driving a car.
If one of my passenger friend says that “we are sailing in a boat” and he believes that it is true. If an other passenger friend says “No, we are flying in an airplane.” And he also believes it is true.
How can for one person a car is a airplane and to an other person a boat at the same time?
Is this possible? It should be either a Car, airplane or a Ship but not all of them.

If this is what relativism is, than there is a serious mistake of believing a lie which is not the reality.
Relativism does not correspond to reality.
The plain fact is that we live in a world in which there are absolute truths. Many statements are either true or not true.

My friend may say that traveling by my car makes him feels like he is traveling by an airplane or a boat. It may be true to him and not true to others. That is his opinion. But if he says that the car is an airplane it can either be true or false but both cannot be true.

It does not therefore correspond with reality to say that there is no such thing as absolute truth and that all truth is relative. There are absolutes.

Just ponder… How can a teacher correct the exam papers of his students if they are no absolutes? How will it be if a student comes to a teacher and say, ‘These answers might be wrong for you, but they are right for me’, or ‘For you the capital of France may be Paris, but for me it’s Bangalore’?

Can anyone live as a complete relativist
Even those who claim to be relativists base their lives on some absolutes. They believe that some things are absolutely true or false, and some things are absolutely right or wrong; they couldn’t live their lives any other way.

During our conversation on our drive back home we talked with few other questions which I will blog in my next posts.