...Chapter 1 The Imperatives of Ethics Ethics presupposes some imperatives or sine qua non, those without which Ethics would not be possible. These imperatives are: 1) the existence of God or a Supreme Being; 2) the existence of human freedom; 3) the existence of an afterlife, i.e. life beyond the grave, or the immortality of the soul. 1. The existence of God or a Supreme Being Without the existence of God or a Supreme Being, Ethics would make no sense. There is no reason for man to deny himself evil but pleasurable acts if there were no final judge to dispense justice. When one speaks off morality or the goodness or badness of human acts, one idea, is presupposed: retribution. Retribution means that good acts deserve reward; bad acts deserve punishment. Reward and punishment are presupposed by morality. Who metes out reward or punishment? It must be a Lawgiver or an Arbiter of Morality, One who dispenses retributive justice. Without this being, the whole structure of Ethics will collapse. At this early point, it must be explained that cultures other than the Christian speak of retribution in a different way. In some cases, the Supreme Being is not a personal God in Whom Christians believe, but rather a law or a process. These cultures had been in existence long before the biblical and Christian eras. The people of these ancient cultures arrived at these concepts by way of human reasoning without the aid of divine revelation. The Indians do not accept the...
Words: 9309 - Pages: 38
...and evil (Bonhoeffer, 21). This is because the knowledge of good and evil is the aim of ethical reflections. Bonhoeffer quoted this because he strongly believed that the tasks concerned with Christian ethics were not discerning the good and evil in the universal principles but the main goal of these Christian ethics being towards the restoration of the human desires to their original focus, God. The Christian ethics task did not show a good judgment between what was right and what was wrong and the Christians only get to know what is good through their conversions of their human desires towards God. This according to Bonhoeffer was that there was nothing like the existence of christian ethics because he never believed that Christianity really existed. Bonhoeffer further claimed that the Christian ethics differed greatly from the other types of ethics. The Christian ethics positions alone making it questionable as to whether it really exists or does not exist at all. Man only knows God and it is through the unity of the knowledge that he knows of the existence of God that he knows about other things, men, and also himself. This shows that man only knows about the existence of things in God. This knowledge of good and evil clearly shows that man not in unison with his origin. Bonhoeffer suggested that any attempt that people try to make to come up with the clear differentiation between good and evil is a deviation from good which is already a drive in the course of evil. This...
Words: 2092 - Pages: 9
...Throughout history, in all areas of the world, there is an ongoing discussion about what it means to be a good person. Every society has different expectations and standards that it’s citizens are expected to adhere to, creating discrepancies in what the “proper” meaning of a “good” person is. Throughout different cultures, a common characteristic of a “good” person is someone that wants to help others and commits acts of a selfless nature; so, a good person is someone that lives not only for themselves, but for others, through selfless acts and the desire and drive to bear fruits of a good nature. Good People and Good Character If someone is to be a good person, they must first have good character. By definition,...
Words: 1761 - Pages: 8
...Understanding Worldviews PHL 215 David Back 03/19/13 Evil is a word that is in every person’s vocabulary. It does not matter what religion or if you have no religion at all. We might have a different perspective of the meaning but we all know that there is evil in this world. It does not matter if you believe the people are evil or if you believe that evil is a supernatural force in them. When Jesus cast the demon out of the man he was talking to evil. He was talking to someone other than the physical man that he was speaking to. Evil to me can be both the person and the supernatural force that can take that person over. Watching this video of 9/11 and the way it affected people was very touching and at the same time very irritating to me. I am a Christian and I do believe in evil but once something like this happens it shows that even the people that think that they have so much faith can lose all that faith that they think that they had in a split second. I know that this was hard and I know that I cannot relate with these people as far as losing a loved one in this catastrophe but out of this catastrophe you can relate it to everyday things that happen. It might not be as EXTREME but it does fit. To hear someone say “this is the best reason to not believe in God” saddened my heart but also made me think about how many people say that after every bad and evil thing that happens. God is not the reason that any evil thing happened. It was said perfectly by an agnostic man...
Words: 714 - Pages: 3
...Arguments have been made for thousands of years whether god allowing free will is a positive or a negative. Many evil actions have taken place and people blame god for not stopping it. In contrast to that many good actions have occurred and people thank god. My thesis is God is all loving but does not interfere with any actions that occur he only provides us with free will. Is free will a gift or a curse? Free Will as a Negative Moral evil is from intent of person to person. In addition, moral evil can cause natural evil to occur, for example global warming. A corporation contributing to global warming might not care that they are hurting the environment. In result of hurting the environment a complete type of animal might be killed off....
Words: 1940 - Pages: 8
...simple fact, evil exists and it can be seen every where in today’s society. No matter how old or young, no matter where we look, whether it is in our textbooks or comic books, on TV or in our video games, evil is always there. There is evil of different types, with different causes and effects, with one event being more evil and has the power to stir up different emotions than the last. By examining opinions offered by people like John Hick, we can understand why God allows evil and the reasons extreme cases of destruction, as in “The Star” by Arthur C. Clarke to exist in our world or anywhere. There is no denying that evil has a tight grasp around the world we live in. It is this simple fact which defines the problem of evil. However, to understand this problem one must first understand evil itself. Webster’s English Dictionary defines evil as morally objectionable behaviour which causes harm, destruction, or misfortune. That being said, there are two different types of evil, moral and natural evil, each of which having their own unique characteristics. Moral evil, or wickedness, is the pain and suffering which is a direct result brought about from human action. Since humans are free to choose and act as they wish, they are free to choose to do good or they can choose to do evil. Most crimes and sinful act which cause pain and suffering, such as rape, murdered, and war are all considered morally evil acts. The second category of evil is natural evil. Natural evil is the pain...
Words: 1389 - Pages: 6
...choose between good and evil is something that we never really think about too often, or in any real detail. Even so; this decision that comes naturally to most, is something everyone must make throughout their life in order to guide their actions and control their future. This ability to choose, no matter what that choice may be or the outcome of that choice, displays a person’s power as an individual. Any attempts to control or influence that choice will, in turn, govern one's free will and enslave them. In the novel A Clockwork Orange, the author Anthony Burgess uses symbolism through imagery, the characterization of Alex, and a first person narrative point of view to show that without the ability to choose between good or evil, one becomes a slave. Symbolism through imagery explains how Alex's ability to choose between good and evil, is his ascendancy over the weak and innocent. The first of these symbols is the music that he loves to listen to. Classical music is the only thing that Alex's has ever truly cared for. The music represents an element of his choice and free will. When his ability to make choices is taken away from him, in an attempt to make him better, he is unintentionally forced to lose his passion for music, by which he exclaims, "And all the time the music got more and more gromky, like it was all a deliberate torture, O my brothers“. This music that once represented his freedom to choose is gone now, and he has been left without any reason to live. He is...
Words: 1415 - Pages: 6
...The Evil Genius Argument is as follows: we will assume that there exists an evil genius, who is capable of deceiving us in the same way we supposed God to be able; for all we know, we may be under the control of an all-powerful being bent on deceiving us. In this case, we are composed of only brains that just receive information and illusions by the all-powerful evil genius. Descartes purpose of this argument is to showcase that we cannot rely on our senses to retrieve true information about the world around us. This argument allows Descartes to doubt mathematical concepts because an all-powerful genius is creating a false reality. In the Evil Genius Argument, the evil genius is all-powerful and can generate doubt about anything for which it is possible to generate doubt. The argument works for propositions about complex objects as well as propositions about simple objects. Thus, this argument is the better one of the two, but even this argument has things it does not work for. The evil genius cannot create doubt about one’s own existence or the fact that one is able to think. Not even an all-powerful evil genius is able to make a person believe that they exist when they do not exist. This would require making a person exist and not exist at the same time, which is impossible. And this also applies to the all-powerful evil genius manipulating thought: the evil genius can make a person believe that they are thinking, when they are actually...
Words: 672 - Pages: 3
...In moral theology, an act is the knowing choice of a human person. Each knowing choice is an act, and each act is subject to the eternal moral law. Some acts are moral, and other acts are immoral. An immoral act is a sinful act. Sin is a knowingly chosen immoral act. The morality of any act is based on three fonts (or sources): (1) The intention or purpose for which the act is done, (2) the inherent moral meaning of the act as determined by its moral object, (3) the circumstances of the act, especially the consequences. To be moral, each and every act must have three good fonts of morality. The intention must be good, the moral object must be good, and the good consequences must outweigh any bad consequences. If any one font is bad, the act is immoral. If an act is immoral due to a bad intention, the same type of act may be moral with a good intention. If an act is immoral due to the circumstances, the same type of act may be moral in different circumstances. But when an act has an evil moral object, the act is inherently immoral, in other words, the act is evil, in and of itself, apart from intention and circumstances. Every intrinsically evil act has an inherent moral meaning (the moral species) which is contrary to the moral law of God. Intrinsically evil acts are never justified by intention or circumstances because the moral species (the type of act in terms of morality) is inherently unjust. Pope John Paul II: "But the negative moral precepts, those prohibiting...
Words: 2755 - Pages: 12
...The idea that "there would be no good without evil" is a good place to start when thinking about Iago and Othello as rival characters in Shakespeare's Othello. The play shows us how good turns into evil in the complex character of Othello, who turns out to be more than a victim of Iago's wrongdoings but also a character who is both good and evil. In Shakespeare's play evil is not something absolute. Evil demonstrates itself as a different quality with each person, perhaps the point when a person forgets moral boundaries and gives way to instincts beyond his or her control. With Othello and Iago, Shakespeare uses characters who bring out opposite qualities in each other. We can imagine circumstances in which goodness can sprout out of evil. However, in Othello's case, the roles are reversed and evil sprouts from goodness. At what point does goodness become evil? Are they boundaries that can be passed, or are the qualities of a character's own judgement? We'll start out with the protagonist. The audience's expectations of Othello are lowered at the start of Act I when Iago presents him as a fiend who steals Desdemona away from her father using magic and enchantments. Later we discover Cassio's and Desdemona's far more elevated views of Othello. We learn about his previous life and not much mystery is involved in discovering what sort of man he is. Othello is not devoid of faults. He is prejudiced, jealous, and most importantly easily manipulated by Iago's schemes. Something...
Words: 705 - Pages: 3
...his strong statements against the belief by asking the atheist to provide sufficient proof that God exists. However, McCloskey is not the only person who is unsure and asks questions God’s existence based on personal beliefs or influence. From the beginning many people have had questions about God and his existence. He wrote numerous books on atheism between 1960 and 1980 including the famous book, God and Evil. This paper evaluates the credibility of McCloskey’s article “On being an Atheist”. One of the McCloskey’s core arguments against theism is his demand for any proof that ascertains theists’ beliefs on God’s existence. He believed that atheism is more comforting than theism because most Christians do not believe in God because of proof but because of certain reasons and factors, he is looking for more solid evidence in God’s existence. However, there are several reasons why a person should believe in the existence of God. Firstly, theists believe that God is the creator of all things and of nature. Therefore, God is the creator of all things in existence and that affect both the atheists and theists are affected by this. The Bible also states, that Koran and other religious literatures all communicate the existence of a high power with some similar characteristics. These writings have been in existence for several years without any alteration of which both theists and atheists draw their arguments. Therefore, to some point, atheists have to believe that God exists in order...
Words: 1660 - Pages: 7
...In Eleonore Stump’s “Mirror of Evil”, she presents how the evil in the world acts as a mirror by telling us things about ourselves. Stump discerns between two types of evil that are found in the world, which are real wickedness and garden-variety moral evil. “Real wickedness” is explained as sharp and felt immediately, while “garden variety” evil is felt much less than this. For Stump all of us have a way to determine what is evil or not, and this is our moral faculty. Moral faculty allows us to know what evil is but also what true goodness is. Our moral faculty states that we know things are evil or truly good solely on our intuition, which is unaffected by our memory, reason or perception. Stump presents many good reasons to believe that...
Words: 1304 - Pages: 6
...God and the Problem of Evil Liberty University Bob Cox The debate of whether God exists has been going on for centuries. Atheists and theists have opposing views on how the universe as we know it came in to being. According to atheism, evolution can explain all we see in the universe. The process of evolution which began with the big bang started the universe and all that is within it. Theists see the world full of design and order and believe it came about through an intelligent creator. Atheists do not believe in God because they have not seen clear proof that he exists (McCloskey, 1968). In his article “On Being an Atheist”, H. J. Mccloskey explains why he believes that God does not exist. The theist believes that an intelligent creator is the best explanation for all that we experience in the universe. Personal experience leads many to begin to think about God. Some wonder about the purpose of their life; while others might be struggling reasons for pain and suffering. It helps to believe that our pain and suffering are for some ultimate purpose and that eventually some good can come from it. Faith in God can be arrived at intelligently through reason. We may not be able to prove that God exists but there is convincing evidence to believe he does. We shouldn’t be afraid to ask questions about what we believe and why we believe it. Our answers will help to strengthen our own faith and give others something to think about. If something is worth believing, it is worth...
Words: 1678 - Pages: 7
...theodicy in response to the unfortunate, painful, evil events and circumstances found in our world. A theodicy is necessary only if we believe in a God who is inherently good, thus requiring an explanation of the apparent discontinuity between a good God and evil in the world. In order to express my own theodicy, I will discuss the forms of evil in the world and their various manifestations as well as whether or not creation as a whole is a “good” expression of the creator God. I will also discuss how eschatology affects our view of evil and God’s part in allowing or interfering with evil. Finally, I will discuss which theodicy I find most complete and why, as well as some of the strengths and weaknesses of my own theodicy. Evil in the World Expressing a theodicy requires a basic understanding of evil which can be referred to in light of that expression. The problem of evil has been dealt with in three separate classifications during our class time and reading; moral, natural and gratuitous evil. Moral evil is an evil event or circumstance caused by a human. Examples of moral evil would be murder, lying, stealing and greed. Moral evil results as the consequence of the decisions made by human beings exerting their free will. War, oppression and slavery are prime examples of moral evil perpetrated by human beings. Natural evil includes the pain and suffering resulting from the forces of nature or the actions of humans. Natural evil can be found associated with weather events such...
Words: 1951 - Pages: 8
...9:00 pm ETHICS AND LESSER EVIL Ethics Ethics also called moral philosophy, the discipline concerned with what is morally good and bad, right and wrong. The term is also applied to any system or theory of moral values or principles. (http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/194023/ethics) All human activities prompted by desire. Respect for the human person is the basic moral principle that inspires and motivates our desire to live in a world where each single person is recognized for his on her moral worth. Ethics is concerned with reflexive thinking for it seeks and examines core values, norms, principles, and traditions. Ethics is therefore a human discipline of the higher order. (Ethics and Human Dignity by:Christopher Ryan B Maboloc) Ethics investigates the morality of human conduct. It is the task of ethics to examine an act to evaluate its morality. Morality is concerned about rightness or wrongness of human action. By nature, we are able with the capability of human reason that should enable us to know and understand the moral good. As a person we have freedom and rights to enjoy, But we should consider the other people, Exercise our freedom and rights without violating others freedom and rights. The Lesser Evil Michael Ignatieff Published by Edinburgh University Press Must we fight terrorism with terror and torture with torture? Must we sacrifice civil liberty to protect public safety? We may need to kill to fight the greater evil, but we must never pretend...
Words: 462 - Pages: 2
