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Religion and Ethics
Bioethics Quizlet
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I used to think that religion made people good and that they were so moral because they were always following God commands, especially the bible and the Ten Commandments that basically says what is right and what it is wrong, what to do and what not to do. Even though I have never been a big religious person myself, I saw as something normal the idea that following the commands can make you a good person. But then I realize that I never took the time to think more deeply about the topic. I have some questions and even though I am sure they have already been answered, I am going to try to answer them. Could someone be a person moral with not religion? Knowing the answer of this question whether it is yes, or no, would lead to other questions like: the relationship between religion and ethics? And last but surely not least. Does religion provide a good foundation for making decisions in biomedical ethics? The first day in my ethics class the teacher asked, if someone could be a good person and not believe in God? This got me thinking about how this simple question can be so complicated. And that was the first time that I realize that I had never asked that question to myself. I used to think that being moral was following Gods commandment. But never thought of morality as something more than following them. Then I realize that of course someone can be moral and not believe in God, then this means that religion does not make people moral. Natural morality it is what makes people act the way they do. Being moral can be describe in two simple steps knowing what is right and then doing it. Religious people know what it is right and wrong because of the Bible. Then Plato gives a good example in one of his dialogues, where Socrates ta... ... middle of paper ... ... the gift of like and only him can take it away. Meaning that religion can in fact make good foundations for bioethics. Not meaning that does doctors that do not have any other type of believes than science are bad doctor or non-ethic person that can also perform their job perfectly. Knowing the answer to this three questions only reassures what has already have been told religion does not make ethics, although in some way it gives strength to be morally better. In my opinion religion is something good that can make a person better. I can also see how in some occasions doing the right things as God commands it can go against what some people may like. Especially when you are a Doctor and the life of people is somehow in their hands. Although I do not think that not having any type of religion makes you a bad person. I believe ethics can be done without religion.
“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.
My father has always reminded me that religion plays a big role in one’s morals. Of course that only applies if a person is religious and has a religious background. There are a lot of religious people in this world, and if one were to ask them where their morals came from, they would say that it is based on their religion. So what is it that makes these two things so similar and distinct? Iris Murdoch, author of “Morality and Religion,” discusses how morals and religion need each other in order to work. Morals without religion is nearly impossible because; religion influences our morals, religion allows to set better morals for one’s self, and ideally morality is essentially religious.
These answers are derived in large part from Christianity, but are similar to those developed by religions all over the world. They provide answers to the Euthyphro dilemma based on intuition and the desire of most people to be considered good people rather than looking for answers in logic as did Plato. Religion provides an easy and clear cut path to being a good person.
... power. It allows for people to have meaning in their life and have an over all picture of the world as a whole. Ethics is a branch in philosophy that asks the questions as follows: What actions are right or wrong? What events are good or bad? What agents are virtuous or vicious (Bruno)? I do believe that religion and ethics over lap in many ways. In most religion there is a set of rules, or guidance, that relates to ethics. Most people would say that as humans, we should lead a good life. As to why is a bit controversial. Some people believe that we should do what God desires and what God does because God is good. Though I do believe that people who accept religion have a better understanding of ethics, others who do not really accept religion in their life believe that is it possible to live a good life without religion, and many religious people recognize that.
Giving to the homeless, assisting an elderly woman across the street, and conducting oneself with integrity are all examples of moral acts. Often we consider doing nice things for our family and friends, or going out of our way to help someone in need a “Good Samaritan” act. However, benevolence and moral adherence are only a few of the qualifications necessary for a belief in God and good morality. A moral is defined as, “pertaining to, or concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong; ethical” (Dictionary.com). “Objective morality” is our society’s way of signifying that some behaviors are right (honesty, kindness, patience) and some behaviors are wrong (stealing, racism, abuse). We are told by our parents, from atheists, and in holiday songs to be “good for goodness sake,” but is that the only reason we have to be good? Many people were taught, and expected, from a young age to uphold integrity and morality because it is right. Most religious people disagree with morality deprived of God and believe that a person can only be good with God, but it is indeed possible for people to be good without the knowledge of God. I contend that humans can be lacking religion and still know the concept of right or wrong, and that morality can exist independent from God.
There are many ways that show that we can separate religion from morality in order to show that they are distinct. Morality shows the choices we make deciding right from wrong which ends with one or more parties receiving benefits. Religion is the belief in a being that is supernatural or present in the environment. The followers of that typical religious ideal may choose to follow under that being's guidance or stem off from the primary goal and change what is recommended for that. I can see that the followers of the different types of religions in the world follow their respective beings because they are symbols of authority to them, which means that they should be obedient to that being. Holding power and knowledge over the world and our
The first one is because of the good feeling that they get from acting morally. The second reason is that there are religions that are used as moral guidelines. The diversity of reasons for acting morally could be due to the fact that every group of people has its own set of values. It is essential to accept that holding a belief without any sufficient evidence doesn’t harm its holder only, but even the people around him because beliefs control our actions. Generally, to better describe the formation of our ideas and avoid limited beliefs, we should replace the word belief with the word thought. Limited beliefs can be acquired by the media, relatives, and friends. People tend to gather information that supports their existing beliefs rather than the ones that form new beliefs. Therefore, instead of owning a belief, a person should question the limiting beliefs and come up with theories that are based on evidence. Overall, the question “why be moral?” is an essential question because it is a socially important. Thus, because beliefs are not a private matter, a better question can be: would you like the others to behave morally with
Morals are having principles or habits with respect to right or wrong conduct (“Morals”). Having morals is something that people can have or lack. In religion, believing in a god with morals is a necessity. In Ancient Greece, however, Greek religion believed in gods and goddesses with immoral behaviors.
In layman’s terms, religion is a lifestyle or a organize set of people who agree on the same doctrine and beliefs and govern themselves accordingly to those doctrines and beliefs. Whereas, morality is what is thought to be correct and what is for the most part done by different groups of people. In a few religions, morality is subject to happiness. Will morality be viewed as a sign for doing the right thing? The answer is most likely yes. Both morality and happiness are conceptual in nature. Happiness does not happen by chance, but rather is looked for through a wide variety of ways. In the sense of religion, society, and culture. Premarital fornication, moral behaviors in one society, and abortion, are some of the ways to attain happiness, but are these things morally right? At the end of the day, happiness and morality are in fact
What is the relationship between morals, ethics and qualities? Give me a chance to begin by saying that despite the fact that numerous individuals feel that they know the response to the inquiry, the answer isn 't altogether assention. For some individuals, the way we answer this inquiry is a capacity of the scholarly train which formed our reasoning and the religious and philosophical underpinnings of our individual conviction framework. I accept that trustworthiness (idea of qualities) is our central convictions. They are the standards we use to figure out what is correct and what isn 't right, the great versus the awful. Qualities give the direction as we figure out what is correct or great and what isn 't right or awful. They are our principles.
Typically many religious people claim that ethics and morality relies on what God rules them to be and fail to see that morality can still be just as significant to a person that doesn't believe in God. Theists, followers of God presume religion to be a substantial reason for our moral conduct. Nonbelievers such as atheists are still capable of understanding the difference between what is right and wrong without religion. John, believes that if there wasn't a higher power to give us the set rules and reasons of how to behave then anything we do would be measured equally. Whereas Andrea, who is against this theory points out that God is not the key for having moral values. Her argument seems to be more convincing because an atheist can still to do the right thing based on their own interest if it has a rational explanation for moral values. The only difference is that non-believers don't have a supreme ruler to measure the intensity of how moral their actions are. Doing the right or wrong thing should be justified on a level of whether or not your actions hurt or harm someone in any w...
Does morality depend on religion? Why? Might morality not depend on religion? Why not? Is it desirable for our moral rules and principles to depend on religion? Is it necessary? I believe that morality can depend on religion, but I also think that it does not have to depend on religion. I believe that people do not usually look at what is morally right or wrong on a daily basis. The people that do, it is rare. It all comes down to how a person was raised, taught, and their surroundings they grew up with or the people they grew up with. I do think that it is desirable to some people that grew up in a religious household for them to think that morality depends on religion. I do not, however, think that religion is necessary for morality. I think that
God (it does not matter whether it exists in different forms or in different numbers because the basic concept of existence is same), is a source of moral strength, but it would seem ignorant to claim that those who do not have faith in God do not often live moral lives. There are, of course many atheists (believers of non-existence of God) who do not refute the principles of morality and are ethical because they realize their importance (either by having credence on any of the other ethical systems such as Kantian ethics, Social Contract theory and Utilitarianism). With the advent of modern liberalism, people have become rational (or at least they believe so). Although they condemn the acts of murder, child abuse, rape and ethnic cleansing but this does not make them more ethical than a believer of God because realization of good or bad is already progr...
To answer this question, we must first understand what both ethics and morality are. As ethics is defined as the philosophical study of morality, those who study religion get their moral precepts from what they believe God says should be done. This perspective is not at all unexpected, because all religions apply a perspective on morality. Morality is defined as beliefs concerning right and wrong, good and bad- beliefs that can include judgements, values, rules, principles, and theories. Morals are what help us guide our actions, define our values, and give us reason for being the person that we are.
When considering morality, worthy to note first is that similar to Christian ethics, morality also embodies a specifically Christian distinction. Studying a master theologian such as St. Thomas Aquinas and gathering modern perspectives from James Keenan, S. J. and David Cloutier serve to build a foundation of the high goal of Christian morality. Morality is a primary goal of the faith community, because it is the vehicle for reaching human fulfillment and happiness. Therefore, great value can be placed on foundations of Christian morality such as the breakdown of law from Aquinas, the cultivation of virtues, the role of conscience in achieving morality, and the subject of sin described by Keenan.