John Arthur: Religion, Morality and Conscience

 

 Name of the Book: Contemporary Moral Problems

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon Link:  

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=

Contemporary+Moral+Problems&x=13&y=17

 

Quote:

"Conscience is "social" not in the sense that morality is determined by surveying what others in the society thinks"

Learning Expectations:

 

1)       To know the connection of religion, morality and conscience.

2)       To know what are the religious motivation and guidance.

3)       To know why is it said to be that "morality is social"

4)       To know what is divine theory is all about?

5)       And to know as well why is this topic involved in the contemporary moral problems.

 

Review:

 

According to Arthur morality and religion are thus different, morality tend to evaluate (perhaps without even pressing it) the behavior of others and to feel guilt at certain actions when we perform them. On the other hand religion typically involves prayer, worship, beliefs about the supernatural, institutional form and authorities texts.

     Another thing would be the practices of morality and religions are thus importantly different. Divine Command Theory based from its definition” The divine command theory (DCT) of ethics holds that an act is either moral or immoral solely because God either commands us to do it or prohibits us from doing it, respectively.  According to Arthur morality and religion are independent of each other. The relationship is not, however, one sided; morality has also influenced religion, as the current debate within the Catholic Church over the role of women, abortion, and other social issues shows. In reality, then it seems clear that the practices of morality and religion have historically exerted an influence to each other.

     The relationship/connection can go the other direction as well, however, as people’s moral views are shaped by their religious beliefs.

It is true enough that Dewey stated that morality is social. Arthur’s believes that aside from morality influence by religion and vice versa the morality’s social character extends deeper even than that. Blame and praise are central features of morality. 

 

Learning’s/Insights: 

 

• "Religion is not necessary for morality."
• "Religion it is often said is neccessary so people will do right."
• "Morality is therfore inherently social in variety of ways. It depends on the socially learned languageis learned from interactions with others in the society,"
• "Consience is "social" not in the sense that morality is determined by surveying what others in the society thinks"
• "Religion is necessay to provide moral motivcation"

•  

Integrative Questions:

 

1. What are the religious and motivation guidance?
2. What is the Divine and Command theory?
3. Why is it that "Morality is Social"?
4. What are the relationship of Morality and Religion?
5. What are the conncetion of the three Religion, Morality and Conscience?

 

Review Questions: 

 

1. According to Arthur how are Morality and Religion different? 

 

According to Arthur morality and religion are thus different, morality tend to evaluate (perhaps without even pressing it) the behavior of others and to feel guilt at certain actions when we perform them. And so this means that morality deals with of refers to the quality of goodness and badness of human act. And it is also refers to the rightness or wrongness of human acts as they conform or do not conform to the standards. Meaning when you speak of human behavior (goodness/badness) specifically actions. On the other hand religion typically involves prayer, worship, beliefs about the supernatural, institutional form and authorative texts.

Another thing would be the practices of morality and religions are thus importantly different. One involves our attitudes towards various forms of behavior (lying and killing for example) typically expressed using the notion of rule, rights and obligations. Religion on the other hand involves beliefs in supernatural powers that created and perhaps control nature, the tendency to worship and pray those supernatural forces or beings and presence of organizational structures and authorative text. 

 

2. Why isn’t religion necessary for moral motivation? 

 

Because according to the book/chapter though come are claiming that religion is necessary to provide motivation, but if you’re going to analyze the book/chapter, there was a problem with the argument, however, is that religious motives are far from the only ones people have. And so it seems clear that many motives for doing the right thing have nothing whatsoever to do with the religion. Most of us in fact, do worry about getting caught being blame and being looked down on by others. And to say that we need religion to act morally is mistaken; indeed, it seems to me that many of us, when it really gets down to it, don’t give much of a thought to religion when making moral decisions. 

 

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

 

This is the second argument according to the book/chapter that is available for those who think religion is necessary to morality, however, focuses on moral guidance and knowledge rather than on people’s motive.

People may want to do the right thing, according to this view; we cannot ever know for certain what is right without the guidance or religious teaching. That’s why human understanding is simply inadequate to this difficult controversial task; and so morality involves immensely complex, problems and so we must consult religious revelation for help.

 Meaning, it doesn’t necessarily mean that having moral knowledge, it’s source was religion itself because based from what I’ve read there are lots of things and opportunities in life of an individual that serves as a source of moral knowledge, but we cannot deny the fact that we got most/someone religion it self, because we know that from the beginning religion plays most part in many individuals life.

That’s why for me it is true enough that considering how much we would need to know about religion and revelation in order for religion to provide guidance/knowledge as well. 

 

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

 

Divine Command Theory based from its definition”The divine command theory (DCT) of ethics holds that an act is either moral or immoral solely because God either commands us to do it or prohibits us from doing it, respectively. On DCT the only thing that makes an act morally wrong is that God prohibits doing it, and all that it means to say that torture is wrong is that God prohibits torture.”

But if were going to based it from Mortimer’s view which was stated at the book/chapter, this would mean that god has the same sort of relation to moral law as the legislature has to statutes it enact; without god’s command there would be no moral rules, just without a legislature there would be no statutes. 

And so as to why Arthur rejects this theory, because according to him, suppose we were grant (just for the sake of argument) that the divine command theory is correct, so that actions are right just because they are commanded by god. The same of course, can be said about those deeds that we believe are wrong. If god hadn’t commanded us to do the, they would not be wrong. 

 

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

 

According to Arthur morality and religion are independent of each other. The relationship is not, however, one sided; morality has also influenced religion, as the current debate within the Catholic Church over the role of women, abortion, and other social issues shows. In reality, then it seems clear that the practices of morality and religion have historically exerted an influence to each other.

Two have shaped each other historically, so too, do they interact at the personal level. The relationship/connection can go the other direction as well, however, as people’s moral views are shaped by their religious beliefs.

Meaning the connection of religion and morality though sometimes confusing and dependent, but still it is true enough that in some ways they are connected or related. 

 

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

 

It is true enough that Dewey stated that morality is social. But for Arthur this means a lot! Arthur’s believes that aside from morality influence by religion and vice versa the morality’s social character extends deeper even than that. Actually Arthur do explained it in 4 reason/ideas.

First, of course, the existence of morality assumes that we posses a socially required language within which we think about our choices and which alternatives we ought to follow.

Second, Morality is social in that it governs relationships among people, defining our responsibilities to others and theirs to us. Morality provides the standards we rely on in gauging with family, lovers, friends, fellow citizens and even strangers.

Third, morality is social in the sense that we are, in fact, subject to criticisms by others of our actions. We discuss with others what we do, and often hear them concerning whether our decisions were acceptable. Blame and praise are central features of morality.

Fourth, idea depends on appreciating the fact that to think from the moral view point. As supposed to the selfish one, for instance, demands that we reject our private subjective perspective of other, envisioning hoe they might respond to various choices we might make.

 

Discussion Questions:

 

1. Has Arthur refuted the divine command theory?

 

Yes. Because if your going to review this chapter you will notice he clearly state important points that a reader must know about the divine command theory.

 

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

 

We cannot deny the fact we as an individual do have a lot of obligations in our lives we do have also obligations to others as well as to non humans like animals. Why? Because they are also things that do have or do give life by god and so it is we can say that we must take care not only ourselves but only those who are not like us.

 

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

 

Yes. Because knowing or studying ethics and applying it to our daily lives to count a moral education.