Can One Be Moral and Not Believe in God? Essay

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The statement set Forth is best understood by the first line given by Hamlet in Act 3. Scene 1 in this 1600 drama. “Hamlet. ” written by William Shakespeare ( 1600 ) . “To be. or non to be. that is the inquiry:

Whether ’tis nobler in the head to endure
The slings and pointers of hideous luck.
Or to take weaponries against a sea of problems.
And by opposing stop them? …”


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Believing in a religious entity or a supernatural supreme being can play a function in one’s moral beliefs. but it is non necessary. The statement will get down with interrupting down what it is to be moral with the definition of lesson. which is “of or associating to rules of right and incorrect in behaviour. ” ( ethically talking ) “conforming to a criterion of right behaviour. ” ( Merriam-Webster. 2011 ) With that in head now. one can be moral and non believe in GOD. because it is up to the individual to take to be moral. hence “To be. or non to be…” This statement will dwell of a brief history in a few faiths. church and province. moral instruction. moralss. and Plato’s and Aristotle’s take on life morally. Again. believing in God is non needfully needed for one to be moral ; all that is needed is good moralss. belief in oneself. and cognition.

The beginning of faith. experts think. arose from the fright and admiration of natural events ( i. e. storms. temblors. and the how babes were born ) . Experts believe that the accounts of decease were the result of supernatural powers greater than one’s ego and the universe around them. Religious activities. prehistorically. involved the most indispensable elements of being. like equal rainfall and or a successful Hunt for nutrient. Prehistoric people were besides believed to hold performed rites intended for good birthrate of adult females. for animate beings. and for wining in hunting every bit good as doing forfeits for all good luck. The major faiths of today may hold been originated between 1500 B. C. and A. D. 600. ( Fontaine. 2011 )

As clip progressed. there came a new apprehension with faith being involved in one’s life. The justification by religion. the actions of an person can be justified by their religion as it assists moral goodness and fidelity to responsibility. Through Christianity. Christ died for their wickednesss to sit before God’s judgement in their topographic point so that they can non be found guilty. As an illustration of justification by religion. trusters are led to be more loving towards God. their neighbours and to make good plants.

For case. dainty others the manner you would wish to be treated. The apprehensions of justification by religion. good Acts of the Apostless towards others. are justified by people utilizing their religion as justification for their actions. ( Edwards. 2011 ) Religion besides has a codification of behavior. a set of moral instructions and values to continue when carry oning the concern of life. From these ethical motives and values. one should handle others how one would wish to be treated. whom one may get married. what occupations may be held. how to dress. and what nutrients may be eaten. ( Fontaine. 2011 )

Now let us look at church and province. The apprehension of church and province is that each should non be involved in the others development. In other words. authorities should run non-religiously and churches should run outside the boundaries of the authorities system. This was disagreed by many. because many believed that faith improves the moral character of citizens and should be actively promoted by authorities. Many others believed that authorities should back up and fund some spiritual activities so long as any faith is non favored over another. From these resistances. arose intense arguments in the United States of America for issues affecting supplication in public schools. authorities support for spiritual schools. authorities support for spiritual charities. and the show of spiritual symbols on authorities belongings. ( Ivers. 2011 )

The First Amendment of the U. S. Constitution warrants that “Congress shall do no jurisprudence esteeming an constitution of faith. or forbid the free exercising thereof… . ” Freedom of faith is still an issue today. for it is interpreted by many tribunal opinions “that the authorities may non advance or give any particular intervention to any faith. ” ( Morgan. 2011 ) Plans. which called for authorities fiscal assistance for spiritual schools have been denied and tribunals have ruled it unconstitutional to many plans to learn the Bible and or recite supplications in public schools. Yet. church and province are non wholly separate. because ( 1 ) . many of the nation’s people are Christians. ( 2 ) . the nation’s slogan is “In God We Trust. ” ( 3 ) . Sessionss of Congress open up in supplication. ( 4 ) . informants in tribunal swear curses on the Bible. and ( 5 ) . Christians governed the United States since its being. ( Morgan. 2011 )

Traveling along. morality in both faith and authorities is a major concern and work together when and if their moral ends desired are with the same purposes. It. of class. is the exact antonym when both entity’s desires and positions of morality are different. like the belief in abortion. Where sacredly it is viewed as morally incorrect and governmentally allowed in some provinces. Moral instruction is focused on what is right and what is incorrect to develop the criterion values by which people judge what is of import. worthwhile. and good. Moral instruction is received from many angles of beginnings one may meet. get downing with their household. church. friends. instructors. and telecasting. Moral instruction lessons were given in schools either deliberately or accidentally in the United States in the 1970’s by developing particular learning methods in aid with covering with moral inquiries. These methods if given in a combination attack were called comprehensive moral instruction.

Inculcation was the attempt to learn values which pedagogues believed to take moral behaviour to kids. Valuess in moral behaviour such as honestness. compassion. justness. and regard for others were taught by appropriate congratulations and penalty and reflected in whichever desired value in the teacher’s behaviour. Values elucidation was designed to help in developing one’s ain values and ethical motives by emphasis puting ends. taking thoughtfully from options. and moving on their ain strong beliefs. Moral development assisted in the development in the abilities to judge moral inquiries.

That which is based on the theory that moral concluding advancements from lower to higher phases in people: ( 1 ) opportunism. ( 2 ) seeking blessing of others. ( 3 ) to following regulations. ( 4 ) esteeming the rights of others. and so on to where opposing Torahs of society if it conflicts with moral rules that are even higher. An illustration of moral development would be seting one in a moral quandary with a inquiry like. “Would you steal to feed your hungering household? ” or let the rules of equity and justness up to the pupils to regulate. Lastly. value analysis teaches the application of logical and scientifically fact-finding techniques to affairs affecting values. where the importance of researching. assemblage. and measuring facts and logically made determinations are extremely stressed. ( Kirschenbaum. 2011 )

Resistance to the instruction of moral instruction in schools believes it is a affair for the household and church to manage. In add-on to their statement. it takes necessary clip off from what should be taught in category. like reading. composing. and mathematics. In studies though. parents have indicated that some signifiers of moral instruction in schools are needed. Their statement is that households need aid in learning moral behaviours consistent with values such as difficult work. honestness. equity. cooperation. tolerance. and regard. ( Kirschenbaum. 2011 ) All these values are built from character instruction including duty and lovingness.

The end. which was set away here. was to develop a more responsible and caring society by implementing and stressing on such plans covering with moralss and duty. The nucleus footing in character instruction has to be established for it to be integrated into schools and in the community. Character instruction is introduced in early classs. which emphasizes on behaviour accomplishments and in subsequently classs. which involves subjects such as cut downing bias and deciding struggles. These character instruction plans have been widespread throughout the United States to nonprofit organisations. universities. and school territories ; therefore giving all these organisations schemes on how to efficaciously integrate character instruction into their course of studies.

Building character comes with ethical picks. “Ethics is a subdivision of doctrine that attempts to assist us understand which ways of life are deserving following and which actions are right or incorrect. Ethical motives addresses inquiries of right and incorrect utilizing ground instead than faith or tradition. ” ( Hunt. 2011 ) Continuing high ethical criterions can be complicated. because some determinations are hard to do. For illustration. Joe has been in-trusted with a secret from a friend. John. that he stole some money from another friend. Thinking about making the right thing. Joe realizes their friendly relationship can be jeopardized. because Joe and John are closer than the other friend is.

Keeping the secret though. can damage Joe’s unity and his moral values. Conflicting ideas can be really hard to grok which way to take. Ethical theories have been made to direct a individual in doing the right pick and they besides guide us when and where conflicting thoughts apply and make non use. Ancient ethical theoreticians such as Plato and Aristotle are two influential minds who have brought order into believing approximately ethical jobs. They have defined a kind of life that is deserving life and the kind of people who can populate such lives. ( Hunt. 2011 )

Plato believes that wisdom. bravery. moderation or self-denial. and justness are virtuousnesss that one should hold. Plato has besides acknowledged that wisdom is the most of import of these virtuousnesss. for it is the cognition of what is genuinely good. Having this wisdom will direct one to make what is right and this will convey harmoniousness to them. therefore constructing the virtuousness of justness. Plato wrote a book. which described the life and decease of a adult male who understood goodness. his instructor Socrates. Both believed that people did non cognize how to be moral. because they did non hold the cognition of moral thoughts to move morally. Plato’s ethical theory is based on the belief that one desires felicity and that moral virtuousness can convey that felicity within the psyche of a individual ; ensuing in a healthy province of the psyche. ( Soll. 2011 )

Aristotle. Plato’s pupil. had similar beliefs. but added more traits needed to populate a moral life. “These traits are friendliness. generousness. gradualness. truthfulness. and humor. ” ( Soll. 2011 ) He believed in one trait that brings out all of the virtuousnesss discussed. which he called phronesis. intending prudence or good judgement ; the ability to cognize what one should make by calculating out what picks would direct one to take a good life.

The survey of practical cognition. cognition that enables people to move decently and unrecorded merrily. Aristotle argued that people do this to happen their map in life. Function like how one’s oculus maps. which is to see ; believing that a happy life is governed by ground. Believing besides that moral virtuousness is happening the medium between the extremes. illustration. “the virtuousness of generousness is the mean between stinginess and thriftlessness. ” ( Soll. 2011 )

From these two antediluvian theoreticians. the belief of moralss differs from modern ethical theories. The difference is ancient moralss related a theory of normal life and offered no solutions to the quandary confronting really critical determinations. Like the illustration of Joe’s quandary. There were no regulations or ushers set in helping us in doing those hard picks. whereas modern moralss is a theory of life in crisis. Modern moralss is directed towards assisting one kind out the conflicting grounds for different picks of action to take. It besides assists one’s decision-making in which. one will take which grounds that hold more value and which 1s hold lesser value.

Modern moralss involve considerations of benefits and of duties. Joe might experience obligated to maintain John’s. a close friend. secret and what benefits will originate from him non maintaining his considered duty. like closer ties with the other friend. who is non a stealer. Modern theoreticians have reached the decision that giving equal importance to both duties and benefits is hard. They have besides divided its ethical theory into two ironss of idea: ( 1 ) deontology. keeping what truly affairs ( ethically ) and to what duties one has. ( 2 ) teleology. claims to what truly affairs in which. one’s actions or policies would outdo profit the people. ( Hunt. 2011 )

In decision. to populate every bit righteous as one can be. does non necessitate GOD or a supreme supernatural being to make so ; even though many of the instructions of how to populate morally consists of values of spiritually related beliefs. edifice character comes with ethical picks. These picks develop or build one’s personal strength in believing in one to make right as to incorrect by educating on and constructing cognition of moral values to which ethic criterions one wants to populate by. Again. moral instruction. moralss. and belief in one’s ego to make what is right are all one demands to populate morally without GOD. “To be. or non to be. that is the inquiry:

Whether ’tis nobler in the head to endure
The slings and pointers of hideous luck.
Or to take weaponries against a sea of problems.
And by opposing terminal them…” ( Shakespeare. 1600 )


Mentions
Edwards. M. U. ( 2011 ) . Luther. Martin. Web: World Book. Retrieved August 23. 2011. from World Book Encyclopedia Ashford University. Fontaine. C. R. ( 2011 ) . Religion. Web: World Book. Retrieved August 23. 2011. from World Book Encyclopedia Ashford University. Hunt. L. H. ( 2011 ) . Ethical motives. Web: World Book. Retrieved August 25. 2011. from World Book Encyclopedia Ashford University. Ivers. G. ( 2011 ) . Church and State. Web: World Book. Retrieved August 23. 2011. from World Book Encyclopedia Ashford University. Kirschenbaum. H. ( 2011 ) . Moral instruction. Web: World Book. Retrieved August 23. 2011. from World Book Encyclopedia Ashford University. Merriam-Webster. ( 2011 ) . Moral. Retrieved August 23. 2011. from hypertext transfer protocol: //www. merriam-webster. com/ . Morgan. R. E. ( 2011 ) . Freedom of faith. Web: World Book. Retrieved August 23. 2011. from World Book Encyclopedia Ashford University.

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