The basic concept of religion and morality, especially divine command theory, is very simple: what God commands is good, therefore only do that. However, things begin to complicate when we begin to answer questions, such as ‘why are Gods commands intrinsically good?’. The Euthyphro dilemma outlines the problems with asserting the goodness of God. In the great philosopher Plato’s text, ‘The Last Days of Socrates’, Socrates questions Euthyphro over the piety of the Gods. Which follows on from which?
The relationship between a theistic God (considering there is one) and morality cannot be explained in simply a few sentences. One may immediately come to the conclusion that God decides what is moral and immoral. This is known as Divine Command Theory which says that morality is dependent on God’s commands. However, this gives rise to the other side that says an action is moral because God approves of it. This is known as the Autonomy thesis which says that morality is not dependent on God’s commands.
Some however may question, how do you name a conscience if it is not a physical matter and one cannot distinguish where it originates from? One of the two main philosophers to support that conscience is the voice of reason is Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas believed the conscience primarily to be a substance of reason; a moral guide that has been placed in us by God in order to make us more inclined to do his will here on earth. He believed that at conception or at some later stage, God gives each person a conscience to be able to discern morally right and wrong. Does this mean then that people who do not have faith or a believe in God are consciousness?
Matthew McKee Knight of Faith and Tragic Hero When we refer to these two classifications in respect to religious purposes, it’s not very difficult to understand where religious figures stand in regard to these labels. These being literary terms relating to the story of Abraham and Isaac, it would be wise to explain what each of them means for the reader’s sake. In order to understand the text of Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling, it’s crucial to know these key terms. Let’s begin with the definition of a Knight of Faith, (KoF). A KoF can be the good guy or the bad guy, depending on how you view religion and the story of Abraham and Isaac for this purpose.
CASE STUDY: THE HOLOCAUST Prejudice is any preconceived attitude, opinion or feeling towards an individual or group of people, which could be either favourable or unfavourable. Most psychologists consider the holocaust in relation to prejudice. The holocaust was a specific period in the 20th century where the Jews were systematically persecuted and annihilated by the Nazi’s. During this era, the handicapped were also targeted. Millions more including: homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Soviet (Russian) prisoners of war, and citizens who didn’t agree, died under the Nazi tyranny as well.
2,700,000 polish jews died being the most affected during the holocaust. 1,250,000 soviet jews died. And 1,390,000 other jews died. Because of the holocaust the jews are offended by the word hitler, and jew. This is an outrage to all of people in the world.
Hitler deliberately expressed his hate toward Jews and gave ample warnings, as it was all written down in his autobiography “Mein Kampf”. In 1935, the introduction of the Nuremberg Laws stripped German Jews of their citizenship and civil rights. Jewish rights were steadily restricted, as in many cases Jewish political and intellectual leaders were the first to be sent to concentration camps. The Night of Broken Glass, on November 9, 1938 lead to the death of approximately 100 Jews, while other 30,000 were sent to concentration camps. Jewish businesses along with almost every synagogue in Germany were damaged or completely destroyed.
* In 1939 and 1940 he was responsible for massive executions in Poland * The executions of Jewish civilians was ordered by Hitler in 1941 * Jews, homosexuals, communists, and gypsies were sent to the concentration camps which were solely made for the purpose of killing * 6 million deaths were reported * The corpses from the gas chambers in Auschwitz were collected they were either cremated in open fire pits or buried Argument 2: * A ruler of the Soviet Union and head of the Communist party was the other leader of a genocide: Joseph Stalin * It all started as a change of the Soviet agriculture and industry in the support of industrialization and ended with 23 million deaths * The regime of 1929 to 1953 was associated with terror, corruption and poverty * The repression under Stalin’s rule lasted from 1936 to 1939 * After Stalin’s death and many more deaths in concentration camps and not only people still were loyal to him, and was even remembered as a time of energy and idealism Argument 3: * The amount of people that died are more than a million under both Stalin’s and Hitler’s rule * Hitler knowing his goal was unmerciful and knew that he would accomplish
Descartes' argument in the Meditations is circular. Discuss. In trying to prove the existence of God, Descartes will, of course, have to rely on what he can clearly and distinctly perceive, because this is the only way he can know anything. However, Descartes also needs to prove that God exists for us to know what we clearly and distinctly perceive. This leads to the famous objection that he uses the existence of God to establish his doctrine of clear and distinct ideas, and that he uses his doctrine of clear and distinct ideas to establish the existence of God: his argument is circular.
This ethical theory aligns itself with a Christian worldview, arguing that an action is good only if the principle behind the action is moral law (Giersson and Holmgren, 2000). In other words, actions should only be done in accordance with God’s will. For instance, clearly stating how outliers are addressed when drawing conclusions based on the statistical analysis is ethical in that it is the right thing to do so that the probability of misinterpretation is minimized. Additionally, Kantian ethics also require autonomy, which is often required in relationship to dealing with clients and the subjects from whom data is collected (Tittle, 2000). Again, this ties back to the Christian worldview of loving ones neighbor.