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The effect of religions in society
The effect of religions in society
The effect of religions in society
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Josue Martinez
RHT 102
Mr. Fouts
Dershowitz vs Keyes
Josue Martinez
RHT 102
Mr. Fouts
Dershowitz vs Keyes
Alan Keyes and Alan Dershowitz 's debate at Franklin & Marshall College about, "Does Organized Religion Have the Answers to 21st Century Problems?", both have very differing viewpoints about the question. Alan Keyes talked about and argued that organized religion played a great role in the 21st century due to that religion and specifically Christianity brought on a set of morals that will be needed to shape the world into a better place for the upcoming times. Although, Alan Dershowitz argued that we do not need religion to help with future problems due to people without religion are just as more and if not more moral than those
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Dershowitz argued that people without a religion can be just more moral than those who have one, "Indeed, it is my contention that a truly moral person, who acts morally--not out of fear of damnation or out of promise of reward, but because it 's the right thing--if anything, is more moral. More moral. The atheist or the agnostic who throws himself in front of an oncoming bus to save a child, knowing that there is no eternal promise, that there is nothing but the grave that awaits him, is more moral than Sir Thomas More who made a cost/benefit analysis as to whether or not to face eternal damnation by disobeying the pope or face instantaneous death by disobeying the king.". Here Dershowitz is able to give factual evidence that people who do not have a religion can indeed be more moral than those with one. Dershowitz is also able to show that the bible can also not be up to date by reading a letter to Dr. Laura here is part of it, "I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I obliged morally to kill him myself, or may I hire a hit man? I know you have studied these things extensively, and so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God 's word is eternal and unchanging.". Here Dershowitz is able to point out some of the bad that is in the bible showing again that religion does not correlate with mortality. Throughout Dershowitz speech he continues to give facts and example; causing him to be able to get is point across and being able to back it up with
“An idea (concept) of virtue which not be formally reflective or clarified bears some resemblance to religion, so that one might say either that it is a shadow of religion, or religion is a shadow of it” (Murdoch 363). Virtue and morality are not necessarily interchangeable, but religion and virtue both have a duty in common. Duty may be performed without strain or reflection of desire, which means your duty, or responsibility, should be performed without hesitation. “Dutifulness could be an account of a morality with no hint of religion” (Murdoch 364). Religion’s demand for morality and being good trumps a person’s decision to fulfill a personal/independent call to duty.
...ad grown so desperate to make money to survive that the lines that defined their morality become blurred or even forgotten. When Casy says these quotes above it reveals that people don’t even look to religion do do what is right, they have to do what is necessary to survive.
Huttmann uses a connotation wile explaining how it was not legally allowed for her to refuse to alert a doctor when a patient stopped breathing. However she thinks about weather it could be morally allowed when she compares standing “before a judge accused of murder” to standing before “a spiritual judge” (Huttmann 421). This “spiritual judge” she is talking about is God. She attempts to relate to her audience, show them that she has a moral compass, in acknowledging the presence of a belief system in her life. This connotation helps to demonstrate to her reader why she made the best choice. According to law, she did the wrong thing, but according to religious beliefs; something her audience understands, she did the right thing. Although she may not think that personal beliefs should be a factor in giving people the right to die, she wants her audience to feel as if this right is what God would
Though individuals live by and react similarly to various situations, not all people have the same morals. I can relate to instances where I have supported a belief, regardless of the criticisms that arise, all because my choice is based upon personal morals. The same can be said regarding Debra J. Dickerson as she expresses in her novel, An American Story. In Carol Gilligan’s “Concepts of Self and Morality,” she states, “The moral person is one who helps others; goodness in service, meeting one’s obligations and responsibilities to others, if possible without sacrificing oneself” (170). After considering this statement, I strongly feel that Gilligan’s proposal lacks the depth to accurately characterize the moral person, but I am able to accept the argument raised by Joan Didion. Her essay entitled, “On Morality,” clearly provides a more compelling and acceptable statement in describing the moral person by saying, “I followed my own conscience, I did what I thought was right” (181). Joan Didion’s proposal is precise and acceptable. It is obvious that as long as people follow what they believe is the right thing to do, and approach the situation maturely, their actions can be considered examples of morality, and they can then be considered moral human beings.
So even without the Bible (religion) mankind has a sense of right and wrong,. However, Nielsen is mistaken because these innate sense of morals should lead one to "religion." He mentions how the scandinavian countries are educated, secular and yet seem good. Again, while this may not be due to "religion," who 's to say this isn 't due to the fact of innate morality (Rom 2:14-15)? Certainly this author would say that religion and morality go hand in hand, it is Nielsen who wants to irrevocably divorce the two. The author isn 't bashful about his beliefs stating forthrightly, ". . . I and other atheists . . ." (Nielsen 18). Nielsen seems to bring up this next point several times throughout his book: Is something good just because God commands it? Or is something good because God 's nature is good? Can the Christian confirm both? Indeed, the Christian can. Because no evil can come forth from God, everything that comes forth from Him must be good. When God commanded
To begin, “On Morality'; is an essay of a woman who travels to Death Valley on an assignment arranged by The American Scholar. “I have been trying to think, because The American Scholar asked me to, in some abstract way about ‘morality,’ a word I distrust more every day….'; Her task is to generate a piece of work on morality, with which she succeeds notably. She is placed in an area where morality and stories run rampant. Several reports are about; each carried by a beer toting chitchat. More importantly, the region that she is in gains her mind; it allows her to see issues of morality as a certain mindset. The idea she provides says, as human beings, we cannot distinguish “what is ‘good’ and what is ‘evil’';. Morality has been so distorted by television and press that the definition within the human conscience is lost. This being the case, the only way to distinguish between good or bad is: all actions are sound as long as they do not hurt another person or persons. This is similar to a widely known essay called “Utilitarianism'; [Morality and the Good Life] by J.S. Mills with which he quotes “… actions are right in the proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.';
At this time in our nation's history, two-hundred thirty years and counting, there is a great debate raging on. In many peoples' eyes our country has made a turn for the worse. We have thrown our Forefather's to the wayside, and there belief in strong Christian influence along with it. To them all could be solved if we merely "re-instituted" the Christian morals and teachings that this country was founded on. On the other hand, there are many who are calling for the complete and utter extraction of all Christian and other religious beliefs from public life and governmental law. To these individuals nothing good and beneficial can ever come from religion. Both of these belief structures are sadly flawed to their very core. But where is the middle ground and why haven't we been able to find it. This is precisely where Jon Meacham's American Gospel shines like no other. If nothing else Meacham's book is an answer to the times. American Gospel covers religion, philosophy, and ideology that shaped American law and thought from the birth of our rich and diverse nation to the time of the Reagan presidency.
...r comes from wisdom and learning what is moral and immoral. I also believe that morality is different than religion. Morality is when you do something because it is right, not because someone higher is going to judge you. Another strong point of Alan Dershowitz, was the use of examples when religion and morality were connected and what happened. The Holocaust and the Crusades are horrific examples of when the Bible has gone wrong. Unfortunately, at that time, the people were not aware of how horrible it was, and it caused many deaths. Today, we are more conscious of what is immoral, and we have learned not to accept what is blatantly wrong just because a higher power is behind it. I believe that the Bible should be used in certain situations, such as to rise hopes among the dreary, but it should not be used to maintain a twenty-first century government's morality.
Winter, Gibson. Address. "Religious Social Ethics in a Postmodern World." Temple University, Philadelphia, 22 March 1995.
...en civilization and the individual. Living in a nation still recovering from a brutally violent war (Germany), Freud began to criticize organized religion as a collective neurosis, or mental disorder. Freud, a strong proponent of atheism, argued that religion tamed asocial instincts and created a sense of community because of the shared set of beliefs. This undoubtedly helped a civilization. However, at the same time organized religion also exacts an enormous psychological cost to the individual by making him or her perpetually subordinate to the primal figure embodied by God.
Religion motivates people to not stray from the path of virtue, but in return, their fear of God keeps those who believe from deviating from the morals set in place by the bible. This can be problematic. You see, people following God’s rules would not be doing so for the right reasons, instead they do it because they fear God’s wrath. This person would be unreliable in terms of morality, and would probably stray from God’s morals if they believed God would not offer a reward for their ‘good’ behavior.
Morality and ethics have always been a large source of debate and contention between different factions of various interests, beliefs, and ideals due to its centrality and foundational role in society and civilization and incredible importance to everyday life and decision making. In many of these disputes religious belief, or a lack thereof, serves as an important driving force behind one or both sides of the argument. In the modern world, one of the bigger instances of this can be seen in the many debates between Atheistic and religious individuals about the implications of religious belief on morality. One of the most famous Atheists, Christopher Hitchens, asserts that religion is not only unnecessary for morality, but actually impedes it. In his work God is Not Great: Why Religion Poisons Everything, Christopher Hitchens challenges religious believers to “name an ethical statement or action, made or performed by a person of faith that could not have been made or performed by a non-believer”, and proudly states afterwards that many have made the attempt but no one has given him a satisfactory answer. However, the best response to this challenge is to point out the inherent flaws in his logic, the unfairness of his challenge, and the fact that Hitchens is asking the wrong question in the first place.
The role of religion in politics is a topic that has long been argued, and has contributed to the start of wars, schisms (both political and religious), and other forms of inter and intra-state conflict. This topic, as a result of its checkered past, has become quite controversial, with many different viewpoints. One argument, put forth by many people throughout history, is that religion and the government should remain separate to avoid any conflicting interests. This view also typically suggests that there is one, or several, large and organized religions like the Roman Catholic Church, which would be able to use their “divine” authority to sway the politics of a given state by promising or threatening some form of godly approval or disapproval. By leveraging their divine power, individual figures within a religion, as well as the religion as a whole, could gain secular power for themselves, or over others. A second view, which was developed by many theologians through history, suggests that that without religion there would be a general lack of morality in the people and leaders of a given state, which would give way to poor political decisions that would not be in the interest of the people and perhaps even God (or the gods). This argument, however, does not address the fact that morality can exist without religion. In sociology, it is commonly accepted that social norms, which include morality, can result from any number of things. Religion, laws, or the basic desire of survival can all create these norms, so it suffices to say that as a society, our morals reflect our desire to live in relative peace through the creation of laws that serve to help us to survive. The argument of whether or not religion and politics should mix...
The author argumentatively explains his opinion as to why the concept of god and religion is erroneous, why religion contradicts every fundamental aspect of...
...teenth century intellects claimed that morality was independent of religion, and that religious authority had no say in the moral dictates of an individual. This sort of thought would eventually sway the public’s view in matters of morality and religion and eliminate the churches influence in society and institution altogether.