As I mentioned last time, secularists are all for naturalism, which is the belief that everything that happens can be explained through natural causes. So, they have a naturalist explanation for ethics and believe humans are in control of the universe and are the only source of ethics. In my textbook, Max Hocutt elaborates: “The fundamental question of ethics is, who makes the rules? God or men? The theistic answer is that God makes them. The humanistic answer is that men make them. This distinction between theism and humanism is the fundamental division in moral theory” (Noebel, p. 230). If the “higher authority” does not exist to secularists, then it is true to them that man has authority of what is right and wrong. Also, they believe in …show more content…
How should the poor be sheltered against injustice? Marxists would rebel and fight for a classless society. The biblical view is incarnation. Christians should care for the poor and lead them to the Lord. It does not matter about the class a person is in. Looking at ethics from a Postmodernist perspective, everything is determined by what you think is right or wrong as well as your culture/community’s opinion. They express culture relativism which is the belief that truth and morals are relative to one’s community. If your community says something is morally right, then it is okay. Each community has dictates that place moral standards in the people as a whole in their community. So if your culture allows it that you can get away with it. No group of society can know what is best for another society since everyone has their own decisions and …show more content…
They believe that there is only one way of thinking, which is having complete freedom to act in harmony with our own understanding of truth. They think that they are “God” themselves and have free will to do anything they way aka autonomy. The key to New Spiritual ethics is being independent and having a personal autonomy without external influence. With them believing in karma, (the belief that good is returned to those who do good and evil is returned to those who do evil, either in this life or the next) it will hold people accountable for the behaviors that bring them harm. The one problem I have about karma is like my bible teacher said, if you supposedly have bad karma, but someone does something bad to you, it cleanses you but brings bad karma to them. Why would that someone receive bad karma if they are helping/cleansing you? It is mind boggling in a way. To sum up the New Spiritualist’s view, as we reach awareness, we should ultimately agree on all things because we are all of the same divine
Our readings from Luke’s Gospel portray those in poverty as the people who will inherit the earth and be by Christ’s side in the kingdom of heaven. In the Gospel of Luke, it states, “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours” (6:20). Our readings from scripture paint a picture that suggests that those who are suffering in the world during their lifetime, will be
For instance, Leviticus 25:35 states, “’if your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you” (ESV). As a Christian, a person is called to help those who are struggling, and speaks of giving everything a person has to help those around him or her. According to the Jacob Riis film, citizens turned a blind eye to all those suffering, without a home or food. It also states in Proverbs 22:2, “…the rich and the poor meet together; the Lord is the maker of them all” (ESV). God created everyone on the Earth, and did not create one group to feel superior over another. The last passage that represents the other half is Proverbs 28:6, “ Better is poor man who walks in his integrity than a rich man who is crooked in his ways” (ESV). A man can be as poor as can be, but wealth does not make you better in the eyes of God.
In the article “God’s Heart for the Poor,” Dr. Jay W. Richards, a famous author, claims that Christians should have both heart and mind in order to help the poor and become a true, good neighbor. He uses some Bible verses to teach the readers about the importance of being a good neighbor and uses The Piety Myth to explain how Christians should “exercise prudence” and connects this concept to the economics.
being secular is being nonreligious, not anti-religious), or it could also come from a religious group towards another religious group. Being secular describes the mindset of being rational and empirical (i.e. such as government), but being religious is the belief in the supernatural beings, such as god, angels or other spiritual related beliefs. Standing on either different religious sides or secular sides is an indirect way to rebel against each other’s values and beliefs. However, two religions can coexist if they respect each other values and beliefs without causing harm or discomfort to each other. One of the recent examples that shows religious-secular conflicts, is the confliction of legalizing gay marriage between the Catholic Church and the government. The Catholics support the idea that marriage should be an act of conjugation (i.e. marriage between man and woman) and procreation (i.e. the continuity of reproduction), and hence they are completely opposing and rebelling against the legalization of gay marriage (McCaffrey 268). On the other hand, the government or political side is supporting the idea of allowing the right of equality and having a family regardless to the sexual
You see, as the story of God develops, we begin to notice that God is not primarily aimed first and foremost at social reform. Now, don’t get me wrong, this is a GOOD THING—however it is not God’s primary goal. Jesus is ushering a kingdom that cannot be shaken and in this kingdom slavery is eradicated. However, first Jesus is working on kingdom people. Before he redeems the whole world and ushers in a new heaven and new earth (Revelation 21) he first is ushering in a new people—Christians…and you see, the social reform this world desperately needs is enacted BY Christians who have first been redeemed
The Gospel itself was most likely written to a mostly Gentile, urban audience and consistently shows a preferential option for the poor. Readers see numerous instances where the author depicts Jesus as claiming the poor as those who will receive the blessings of Heaven and instructing his followers about the dangers of possessions and wealth. It is obvious that the evangelist was concerned with how his or her local community was responding to the poor and how they were gaining and using their wealth.
Postmodernism is perhaps the most difficult thing to define at this point in time. That is in large part due to the fact that we are currently still in the movement, political view, or economy (to classify postmodernism as only one of the above is to have already defeated your definition). One of the few things that have been empirically proven is that it indeed focuses on culture. Jameson once argued that postmodernism was a more of a cultural dominant than anything else (Storey, p. 184). This would tend to classify postmodernism as an assimilation of all cultures, with a survival of the fittest effect. Take for example the effects of one culture, regardless of that culture's size, on mass culture ISA's. A battle occurs between the established ISA's and the new subculture ISA's until finally a victor has been declared. Which ever has gained more favor drowns the weaker, and all ISA's of the weaker genre will be discredited. Postmodernism is seen as the cultural dominant of our era, however this has not always been the case. One particular group attempted to attach cultural dominance, or rather cultural understanding, to their already established political body: the Marxists. While the cultural studies that were performed by the Frankfurt School were probably the first studies that ever addressed culture, their findings have not stood the test of time. One of the most important things to understand is that Marxism is generally a political body, while postmodernism is similar to a movement. Marxism has it's own views of culture that were developed through the Frankfurt School, but the movement of postmodernism disregards the Frankfurt school's theories. Postmodernism has in fact taken the...
Ethics are the principles that shape individual lives in modern society. It is a subjective idea that seems to have a standard in society. Ethics and morals are the major factors that guide individuals to make right and wrong choices. Something that is morally right to one person might be the very opposite of what another person would view as right. There are many factors that can trigger a change in an individual’s view of morality.
Since no one culture is the same as another culture, how can our ethical views be the same? They can’t. A Greek historian of the 5th century named Herodotus, advances this observation “when he observed that different societies have different customs and that each person thinks his own society’ customs are best. But no set of social customs, is really better or worse than any other” (Rachels, 2015). Herodotus also went on to say that, there is no such thing as what is really right or wrong apart from our social codes. Social codes are all that exist and are different from culture to culture, they are the rights and wrongs for that culture. “Each society develops standards that are used by people within it to distinguish acceptable from unacceptable behavior, and every judgment of right and wrong presupposes one or another of these standards. For example, if your society believes in arranged marriage, then arrange marriage is right for “your society”; and if that practice is wrong within my society than the arrange marriage practice is wrong for my society. Another argument that supports the ethical relativism can be read by a Scottish philosopher Davis Hume. David
The beliefs and claims of secularism is “a form of opinion which concerns itself only with questions, the issues of which can be tested by the experience of this life. More explicitly, secularism is that which seeks the development of the physical, moral, and intellectual nature of man to the highest possible point, as the immediate duty of life – which selects as its methods of procedure the promotion o...
Socialism is an ideology that is famous for its opposition and contrary to capitalism. The central ideas of socialism viewpoints of human beings as social creatures united by humanity; and that individual identity is created by social interaction and their membership in collective organizations.
Humans have notably different ethical standards which dictate what is or isn’t correct. Those standards are shared and followed by a group of people. For example, the concept of killing is not unknown. The typical response is to punish the one who commits that “crime,” even if that person was “right” to do so. However, killing may not seem like a crime to some people. Rather, to them killing is necessary for protection. Given that there are many cultures in the world, one can assume that each of those cultures is not like the other. They must all have their own ethical standards. In addition, it is suggested that a person refrains from assuming that one’s ethical standards are superior or inferior to another person’s standards. Cultural Relativism
The first type of ethic is,descriptive ethics or morals is best studied as psychology,sociology or anthropology. Different societies have different moral codes. This is true because, every society has a different religion,culture or specific routine or belief.Morals are classified as descriptive science. They are studied by many,many people and are all looked upon differently.Morals are also considered to be the shared ideas of a group irrespective of whether they are practiced.or how they are practiced.Different persons,groups,and societies have different moral standards, this is seen true by all sides. As you well know everyone has an opinion, moral ethics is all based on opinion. Second is,normative ethics or perspective ethics. This is the study of moral problems which seek to discover how one might act, not in fact how they act. Normative ethics also applies to how one might think one should act. Normative ethics are based solely on the opinion of another person, unlike descriptive ethics.More specifically (normative) ethics are the discipline concerned judgements of setting up norms.Although moral ethics go hand in hand they are different.Morals define personal character, while ethics stress a social system in which those morals are applied. Meaning morals inform you on human behavior whereas...
Politics and many aspects of society today have been heavily influenced by political thinkers and scholars from ages before our time. Whether their ideas were implemented or avoided, society today has learned and grown from these influenced; there has been societal adaptions and changes with every success and failure. One important philosopher that is still widely talked about today is Karl Marx. His theories and ideas are still studies, discussed and utilized today. Some aspects of Marxism is relevant to modern day but there are still some major critiques to his opinions that prove there in inconsistencies with the relevance of Marxism. This is a result of his failure to predict how advanced and revolutionized society would be in modern day.
Following your culture’s norms is always good because that’s what you were raised with. At a certain point if you feel like something is not right, you can always try to question it. Ethical relativism can’t be compared because everyone weren’t raised by the same morals and trying to get someone else to understand and follow your morals may not be the easiest thing to do. Our morals are what make us who we are. They’re used as our guides on what is right to do and what we should avoid. We shouldn’t try to compare them with other cultures because they might lose their