Neferteri Grace P. Jumawan          BS-IS

ITETHICS                                    Mr. Paul Pajo

 

Book: Contemporary and Moral Problems

Title: Religion, Morality, and Conscience

Author: John Arthur

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Contemporary-Moral-Problems-James-White/dp/0534517242/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1

 

Quotes:

          “Religion is necessary to provide guidance to people in their search for the correct course of action; and religion is essential for there even to be a right and wrong.”

          “One reason is what it implies. Suppose we were to grant that the diving command theory is correct, so that actions are right just because they are commanded by God.”

 

Learning Expectation:

          I want to learn how the author explained and defined morality and religion and how they were connected or not to each other. I also expect to learn how he handles and give his thoughts in every argument. Lastly, I want to know how he fully explained the divine command theory.

 

Review:

          John Arthur, the author, wrote the book entitled Religion, Morality, and Conscience. In this chapter, the author explained the definition of Morality and Religion and how it is related or influenced to each other. He said that morality is behaviour and actions of the people while the religion is the belief of the people in supernatural forms. Here, he means that religion is independent to the morality. It doesn’t mean that when your actions are wrong, it will be irreligious. But for some reasons, when your actions lead to be wrongful like for instance abortion, the religion will come out and the church will probably disapprove that actions. Morality and Religion will be somewhat connected in a sense that when you do something, analyze it whether it’s wrong or right and by this religion or your belief will comes next. And that religion is necessary for the moral guidance or moral motivation.

          Another topic that Arthur had discussed was the Divine Command Theory. Divine Command Theory means God is the ruler of all. Here you will either know if the actions of the people are right or wrong if it was commanded by God. If God commanded that this action, beliefs are right, it is. But when it wasn’t commanded by God it means that it is wrong. God is responsible for judging and knowing whether the people’s action is right or wrong. So in result, God can change any rules whether we think it might be right or wrong. What I like about Arthur’s argument was when he asked and explained that with this Divine Command Theory, God can change any rules and according to this theory, God can change the good ones to bad ones. Meaning it is possible that God would change and order people that this action such as helping other people will lead to cruelty and that cruelty will be the right one and vice versa.

          In conclusion, I like how Arthur discussed the morality and religion and how it is connected in some ways and how they religion influenced the actions of the people. Here, we can say that it would be necessary for us to know how actions be related to your beliefs and this belief affected your actions.

  

What I’ve learned:

          I’ve learned that Morality is somewhat necessary or connected to religion in a sense that you’re actions will be criticized. Your actions will influence your beliefs.

 

Integrative Question:

1.   

1.  What is Divine Command Theory?
2.    How is religion related or connected to Morality?
3.   Who is John Arthur?
4.    Who is John Dewey?
5.   What is the title of the book written by John Dewey?

Review Questions:

 

 

1. 1.    According to Arthur, how are morality and religion different?

 

 

Religion and Morality is different. As Arthur explained, it seems that Religion is different from Morality in a sense that religion is an act wherein worship, praying, supernatural beliefs, institutional forms, and others were involved. While in the other side, morality is more on how people act and behave which lead to the act of obligations, rights, laws, and rules. Here, it seems that both are different when it comes to practices. But still people don't see that these two concepts are merely connected in which they try to make situation wherein morality and religion will somewhat combine. For instance, people are trying to do the right thing because they think that they will eventually be punished whenever they violated any rules or in the contrary of the law. Here, you can see that those two concepts are trying to meet when it comes to any situations. People will look upon the possibility that if they do something wrong or right, God will always be here to judge or see your acts. In this situation, the concept of religion comes. And religion will trigger whether your acts or you moral will intend to be right or wrong.

 

 

1. 2.    Why inst religion necessary for moral motivation?

 

 

Here, it seems that religion is important or necessary when people do the right or wrong thing. That religion is one of the things that people intend to support when they make decisions or when they act. But in the contrary, you may find that religion has nothing to do with people's act. As Arthur mentioned, whenever people act or make decisions in their life, they tend to not relate it to any religious acts. it is where people has the capacity to think what is right and wrong even without the concept of religion. It seems that people will probably think that they act or they do that not because of the religion itself but for the purpose of not hurting themselves, their family, or friends. Whether they act morally or not, religion will not probably be one of the reasons why they acted like that. It's somewhat they do things without thinking that religion might be related to it or will it concern them. Aside from this, people don't think that religion will come in making moral decisions. Here, people sometimes don't consider the thought of religion in making their acts or just in making decisions in life.

 

 

1. 3.    Why isn’t religion necessary as a source of moral knowledge

 

 

Some people think that religion is necessary as a source of moral knowledge and some may not. Here, people are more on the fact that they make decisions not because of the religion or some other reasons. They tend have the conclusions in mind about people’s motives. It seems that people must take into account also the religion in making the necessary acts. But on the other hand, people think that whenever they decide whether to act accordingly or act harshly, it seems that they are most in favor on their beliefs and try to not relate religion as they decided on certain things. It’s true that they need also guidance and people build concept to their mind that they cannot know certain acts like doing what is right without even knowing or having a guidance of those religious teachings.

 

 

1. 4.    What is the divine command theory? Why does Arthur reject this theory?

 

 

According to the author, Divine Command Theory explained that God is related to moral law or the same with the legislatures. Here, it means that God is like the most powerful or should I say God is the ruler of all. It mentioned that without God’s command, there would be no moral rules. With this definition, Arthur thought that it's not a good idea that you define god as likely as legislatures. Arthur rejected this divine theory of command because of the reasons behind this concept. Here, he said that actions are all right whenever it was commanded by God. He stated that if God commanded us to do that and those, that actions are right and same thing if God didn't commanded this act, it is not wrong.

 

 

1. 5.    According to Arthur, how are morality and religion connected?

 

 

Arthur argued that morality and religion is merely independent to each other. But he makes it a point to explain also the other side of it. Since, morality and religion is not the same. Mr. Arthur explained morality influenced by religion. Since morality involves the actions and behavior of the people, it will be related to the religion once your action compromise to the concepts of religion. One example of this is Abortion. When this happened, morality and religion will interact and be connected to each other. Abortion is immoral and church will not agree to this. According to Arthur, the views and thoughts of the people about moral issues are based or influenced by the religious practices and outlook.

 

 

1. 6.    Dewey says that morality is social. What does this mean, according to Arthur?

 

 

As Dewey stated Morality is social, Arthur has his own interpretation on the statement of Dewey. He explained how religion and morality seems to be connected or influenced each other or might as well that morality is social. Here, Arthur mentioned his 3 arguments about this. The first one is that the existence of morality is based on our potential to think of our choices and which alternatives should we follow. The second one talks about people and how they manage their relationships among other people. Then the last one is about how people being a subject to criticism by others.

Discussion Questions:

 

 

1.    Has Arthur refuted the divine command theory? If not, how can it be defended?

 

 

I think Arthur argued about this. He disapproved the divine command theory. He explained that the concept of the divine command theory is somewhat unacceptable because of the fact that you can only determine the right or wrong if it was commanded by God. So, Arthur mentioned some of his thoughts explaining why he’s in favor of this theory.

 

 

 

2.    If morality is social, as Dewey says, then how can we have any obligations to nonhuman animals?

 

 

As stated by Dewey, morality is social and we have obligations to whether humans or nonhuman animals. Since everyone has its way on surviving and everyone whether you’re a human or animals, you have the rights to be in this world. We can have obligation to nonhumans by allowing them to live and survive in this world.

 

3.    What does Dewey mean by moral education? Does a college ethics class count as moral education?

 

 

Moral education is like teachings. Here, you will learn whether the actions would be in the right or wrong one.