It is often claimed that since so many individuals and cultures disagree regarding moral issues, then the obvious conclusion is that there must be no objective moral values. But as Francis Beckwith points out, “relativism does not follow from disagreement.”[i] Simply because people disagree, doesn’t mean there is no fact of the matter. Suppose you run into a member of the “flat earth society,” and find yourself in a heated discussion about whether the earth is indeed flat. At the end of the debate, you still disagree. Does that mean that there is no objective fact of the matter concerning the earth? If anything, disagreement ought to motivate us to understand why we disagree; not giving up on the conversation all together.
[i] Francis J. Beckwith, “Why I Am Not a Moral Relativist,” in Why I Am a Christian: Leading Thinkers Explain Why They Believe, ed. Norman L. Geisler and Paul K. Hoffman (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2001), 19.