Relativism

Moral relativism refers to the idea that morals range from person to
person society to society and there are no universal true morals for
everyone. For example within certain Islamic communities Sharia Law
would appear just and right, yet by western ideals some would consider
their punishments immoral. This would appear to be an acceptable idea as
it would appear to be true, as morals and ethics are based on individual
experiences, religious affiliation, upbringing and so on. The obvious
problem arises when people perform actions that others find offensive and
intrude upon their own morals. Within relativism it would appear that so
long as the other person feels it is morally right it should be accepted.
This is of course cannot always be done and thus causes problems and
conflict between the two parties.

Thus relativism would appear to contradict certain religious ideas, for

example some Christians believe that all humans are born with the same
Christian morals. Relativism would disagree and state that morals are
relative to each individual and thus cannot be the same. Yet relativism
might agree that people hold this view of morality because of their
upbringing, and thus it still fits in with the theory.

An alternative way of looking at relativism is to consider that morals are

relative to the situation, what might be morally right to one person might
be different in another situation or to a different person. For example if a
young woman was raped, some people might consider it morally
acceptable for her to have an abortion, yet might condemn a couple
asking for an abortion because it is inconvenient.