A poll published in The Sunday Times last week shows how rapidly Ireland has changed on a raft of moral questions. The exact degree of change is open to debate because different polling questions get different answers, but there has undoubtedly been a big shift in a lot of moral attitudes.
The poll finds that 92pc of people believe divorce is morally acceptable (what about where a husband divorces a blameless wife for a ‘younger model’?). Ninety percent think it’s ok to have a baby outside marriage (how many nonetheless believe it’s best for a child to have a married mother and father?).
Sixty-four percent favour embryo stem cell research (do they know it destroys the embryo?). Those polled are split more or less 50/50 on abortion and 50/50 on medical animal testing. (Young people are most in favour of abortion and most opposed to animal testing. Go figure).
Ian McShane of Behaviour and Attitudes, the polling company that conducted the survey, believes the changes in attitude show we have become “more liberal and open-minded”. Well, that’s one way to put it. Another is that we have become more permissive, more relativistic and more individualistic in our attitudes.
The single strongest moral value of our age is personal autonomy and choice. We’re not so inclined as we were to think certain things are simply wrong in themselves regardless of opinion. We’re more inclined to think that something is wrong if it’s wrong for us, and right if it’s right for us.
Is this more ‘open-minded’ as such? Some people are fanatically and intolerantly pro-abortion, as any perusal of social media will confirm. Same goes for same-sex marriage. Same goes for many atheists who are intolerantly anti-religion.
A more relativistic attitude isn’t necessarily speaking more open-minded at all. It might simply be indicative of an attitude which says, ‘I should be allowed to do what I want, when I want’.
It is also extremely debatable whether a society that is permissive towards divorce, abortion, assisted suicide etc is a better society than one which is not.
A society which is less permissive towards divorce might believe more strongly in people keeping their solemn vows.
One that opposes abortion simply believes children in the womb ought not to be killed, and the fact that 72pc of those polled are against suicide while only 37pc are against ‘assisted suicide’ might simply show confusion of mind.
So the poll results are good for those who believe choice is all. They’re not so good if you think certain things such as keeping your promises and the right to life are more important.