Transcript Nationals Morality Religious & Moral viewpoints

Morality in the Modern World
The Relationship between
Religion and Moral Values
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Morality and Killing Is killing ever right?
 Some religious people might say never
 Other religious people would say it depends on the situation
 Secularists may also say it is never right
 As secularists don’t believe in an afterlife, they could argue
that they see life as precious more than religious people
Peter Singer
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Divine Command Theory
 God commands to do good
 If God commands killing, it is for a good reason
 God’s command comes through various methods
 If a religious person was told to do something they thought
was morally suspicious they would put more than one
feature of their faith together to double-check.
 They do not usually follow ‘blind faith’
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Religious Morality
 Some believe that there can be no morality without religion
Some sources of morality for religious people:
 Understanding & explanations of sacred writings
 Direct guidance from God through signs, visions etc.
 Traditions within branch of religion
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Problems with the Interpretation of Sacred Writings
 Views vary between branches of the same religion
 Some people believe sacred texts are literally God’s direct
word while others think they are merely a guide
 Some see the Bible as a ‘whole package’ while others
‘cherry pick’
 Some people believe the Bible was written for the societies
at the time and isn’t relevant today
 Some of today’s issues wouldn’t have been
thought of today and vice-versa
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How might a religious person make a moral decision
through interpreting the sacred scriptures of their faith?
 Faith: sacred writings, prayer, reflection and study
 Tradition: teachings from their key figures and denomination
 Reason: take into account different understandings
However
 Religions have many different groups/beliefs/understandings
 There are different versions of the Bible
 There are different philosophies in Buddhism
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Viewpoints based on a secular approach
 Secularists argue there is morality without religion
 They have no ‘sacred texts’ but do have ‘writings’ e.g. UN
Declaration of Human Rights or writings of key secular
thinkers such as Peter singer
 Faith: secular thinking is evidence based not faith based
 Tradition: they do have views to draw on but not ones with
the same ‘authority’ as religious traditions
 Reason: this is the principal way of making moral decisions,
weighing up the pros & cons of evidence through reasoned
analysis
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Secular and religious morality may be similar in practice, but
they be coming at moral decisions in different ways.
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Peter Singer (born 1946) is a supporter of
Preference Utilitarianism.
He believes the views of beings capable of
holding preferences (e.g. adult humans) are
more important than that of many animals
and young children, as they cannot hold
preferences to the same extent.
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The Guiding Principles for Morality
Utilitarian Ethics is based on the consequences.
Problems:
• Consequences are hard to predict
• The consequence you want might not be the same as
everyone else.
The consequences are not in our control but the reason we
choose to act is.
Principle of Utility (or The Greatest Happiness Principle):
Our moral choices should be based on getting the greatest
good (or pleasure or happiness) for the greatest number of
people.
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Problems with Utilitarianism
• Who decides what good, happiness or pleasure is?
• It is never possible to fully predict consequences.
• What is good in the short term might not be in the long term.
• Is it fair to ignore the good of the minority?
• Is a society that doesn’t care for minorities a good one –
there is a chance we all could be in the minority one day.
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You need to be able to apply Religious Morality and
Utilitarianism to:
 The Use of Embryos
and
 Euthanasia
Meaning:
o What are religious views on both?
and
o What are Utilitarian & Secularist views on both?
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