Effect of Customs on Moral Values - Term Paper Example

These customs may contradict the common truth in a multicultural society. Some customs belonging to a particular community may appear to be evil or good in a different community. Therefore, a particular customary practice may have different consequences depending on the society judging the practice. The act of believing one's custom is the best or king over all customs is referred to as relativism (4).

Customs defines the morally accepted and morally rejected practices for a given society. Among the Japanese, bowing when greeting someone is considered to be a moral practice. This forces foreigners to forego their practices and adopt those of the locals. In Muslim countries, women have to veil their faces before appearing in public, and their hair should be covered always. Several societies consider keeping long hair and beard to be immoral. Customs upheld by communities define the right and wrong practices, which at times can be oppressive. In such cases, customs are considered to be the baseline of moral beliefs in society. In Germany, the Nazis were against the Jewish religion and the leaders decided to execute them (6). According to Nazis, this was the accepted way of eliminating the Jews but was considered to be evil by the Americans due to different customs.

Individual values are gotten from parents, teachers, religious leaders, and historical books. Children internalize values learned from different sources and form a sense of good or bad. This leads to the differences in moral values between different cultures. Ancient customs or cultures have different moral values, which are learned by the children and subsequent generations. The conscience of a human being is also a product of the moral life. Conscience helps individuals identify wrong acts depending on personal and societal values contributed to by culture. An individual picks up several values during childhood and throughout his or her lifetime definition of a good human being (7).

Certain individuals may differently adopt from other people within the same community due to external influence. In Germany, some Nazis rebelled, held out, and fled from the mass execution of Jews by Hitler. According to them, their execution was immoral though it was being practiced by their fellow Nazis. Moral values can be influenced by external cultures and one’s values cease to be superior to that of others. Society the morally acceptable values, but individuals may change their values depending on the influence. However, every individual or society believes to hold the highest values irrespective of their nature. Holding certain values does not mean they are the overall good, but they influence a person’s view of the right and wrong practices. This makes moral values to be relative to theist and the upbringing of an individual (9).

Religion also determines the values regarded by an individual as good or bad. Some people believe that God reveals the truth to human beings, which also defines the good and the bad. This forces them to line up their values according to the religious revelations and form a point of judging others. This makes them believe their values to be right and can act as the standard goodness. Some individuals do not believe in Godly revelations; therefore, their values are based on culture (11). Different objective points provide different justifications for moral assessments. Values are considered to be good or bad relative to an individual’s measure. Personal opinions regarding different values form personal justification of the good and the bad and may be used to judge others. These opinions may be different from the societal conditioning of an individual and maybe as a result of external interaction.

Every individual considers his or her custom to be the overall best, particularly the moral values. These values are learned from cultural and religious beliefs. In most cases, individuals have moral values that are in line with their cultural beliefs. However, some beliefs are a result of interference from other cultures. This makes people have different opinions about the good and the bad. These opinions form baselines for judging other people’s practices. This is in line with the earlier belief of superiority of one’s customs. Every individual acts based on how things appear to be and this forms an objective point for judging others.