1. The biblical basis of Jubilee 2000’s call for the immediate canceling of all debts of HIPC’s is found in Leviticus. This bible book states that “you shall not oppress one another.” Also in the book of Leviticus in the case of someone who becomes poor and in turn to sells his possessions then his relative may redeem the possessions he sold. Or if the man has no one to redeem it but he himself becomes able to redeem it then let him count the years since the sale, and restore the remainder to the man whom he sold it, that he may return to his possessions. But if he’s not able to have it restored to himself, then what was sold shall remain in the land of him who bought it until the year of Jubilee and in the Jubilee it shall be released and he shall return to his possessions. (Lev 25:25-28 NKJV) This biblical situation is almost identical to the one of heavily impoverish countries. Those heavily impoverish countries were unable to accomplish financial stability so the more fortunate countries gave back to them in the form of erasing debt. There’s also Bible scripture in regards to debt owed by the poor. Proverbs 19:17 reads, “He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward him for what he has done.” In addition, Deuteronomy 15:7-8 says, “If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of towns of the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs.” I strongly agree with this approach. It’s only humane.…
The Divine Command Theory leaves no room for reconciliation with the concepts of Christian liberty and God’s undeserving grace. There is no room for failure according to this concept because we will never be able to keep all of God’s commandments. It is difficult, dare I say impossible, to accept this theory if one is a true believer. By rejecting the concept of grace, one rejects the very compassion and reason Jesus died on the cross for us. The apostle Paul states, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God-not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life" (Hollinger, 2002, p.100) (Ephesians 2:8, New Living Translation). I will never be able to earn the grace of God, yet it is his “internal working of grace” that allows me to be ethical (Hollinger, 2002, p.100). "If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free for real" and free from the condemnation of the law.…
“The Letter to the Southern Baptist Minister” forced me to raise a number of questions. Rather often, we think of environmental issues as related to political ideology or connect them to personal religious identities, which confuses the matter. In his letter, E.O. Wilson asks this pastor to remove that confusion, and, while they hold different worldviews, to consider his position. Wilson further proposes that both Christian and non-religious individuals can hold a humanist belief of conservation. Whether an individual holds that creation is the offspring of a creator and should be preserved as a work of his genius, or that the world should be preserved because it is the only source of sustenance for the human race for the foreseeable future, they can mutually agree that conservation will have positive effects and that this masterpiece of biology should be preserved. As exemplified by the people of Easter Island, we should not allow ourselves to overuse natural resources, because of not only destruction caused to nature but also because of the negative effects which would be given to our ancestors.…
The Euthyphro dilemma is found in Plato's dialogue Euthyphro, in which Socrates asks Euthyphro, "Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?" Socrates and Euthyphro discuss the nature of piety in Euthyphro. Euthyphro says that the pious is the same thing as what is loved by the gods, but Socrates finds a problem with this: the gods may disagree among themselves. Euthyphro then revises his answer, so that piety is only what is loved by all the gods unanimously.…
This paper presents a Toulmin model argument for the care and usage of the Earth and its natural resources as dictated by God in the Holy Bible (NIV). The Old Testament provides many guidelines for man to live fruitfully on Earth. Because it was made by God and given to us, we must follow the guidelines that he has set forth in the care and preservation of our planet.…
5. The world is facing greater and greater pollution, along with the depletion of natural resources. Every person in every country is affected by damage to the earth's environment. What can be done to address this problem and to either reverse the damage or at least try to limit the amount of damage that will be done in the future?…
Exaggerate the event and the outcome. For example, if you write about your 6th grade soccer tryout, exaggerate the obstacles you faced, exaggerate how you overcame them, exaggerate how the news was given (remember Big Fish).…
The Divine Command Theory states that whatever God says is so, simply because God said so. Meaning X is morally right because God says so and Y is morally wrong because God says so. This theory states that things are wrong or right simply because God says, not because of what we consider to be morally right or wrong, but just because of what God says.…
Advocates that describe letting someone die as being more moral than killing someone often cite the trolley case as support for their argument, and use modus tollens. Where a trolley is coming down the track towards a group of five unsuspecting individuals, and you are in a position to pull a lever. Pulling the lever switches the tracks to just kill one unsuspecting person. Their argument is that if you pull the lever to switch the track to kill the one individual; then, by deciding who dies, you are morally worse than if you had done nothing. You don’t pull the lever, there for you are not morally worse having done nothing. This uses the form of modus tollens; If p then q, ~p, therefore ~q. Implying that letting an individual die is more…
According to the Divine Command Theory morality depends upon religion in the following sense: Morally right actions are morally right because God commands us to perform them, and morally wrong actions are morally wrong because God forbids us from performing them. In other words, the Divine command theory is the view that morality is somehow dependent upon God, and that moral obligation consists in obedience to God’s commands. My goal is to prove that the Divine Command Theory is false because of the belief argument and the Euthyphro dilemma.…
Divine Command Theory is an ethical theory which claims that God’s will is the foundation of ethics. Based on Divine Command Theory, things are morally right or wrong, compulsory, allowed or disallowed if God or deities commands it. In Divine Command Theory, what makes an act moral or immoral is that God commands or prohibited it.…
In week 8 we’ve studied different types of theories. Ethical theory examines the different philosophies or systems used to explain and make judgments regarding right/wrong/good/bad. Each ethical theory attempts to follow to the ethical principles that lead to success when trying to reach the best decision. We’re approached with choices in our everyday lives. Whether the decisions we make are correct or not depends on us and our own personal ethical theories we live by. The ethical theories that we’ve covered in this week are Utilitarianism, Divine command theory, Social contract theory and Virtue theory.…
Many have puzzled over Socrates’ contradictory statements between Plato’s Apology and its sequel, the Crito. The stance on justice that Socrates articulates in the Apology seems to be immediately contradicted by the moral opinions he expresses in the Crito. While in a broad sense Socrates appears to offer opposing opinions in each work, when one looks more closely at the meaning behind Socrates’ words, he will find that his apparent inconsistencies are not genuine contradictions and that in accepting his execution, he does in fact act justly through suffering injustice rather than actually committing it.…
Today I learned about two moral theories, Divine Command Theory and Kant's deontological ethics. Divine Command theory is a non consequential normative theory that says we should always do what God commands; the view that actions are morally right if God commands or permits them, and morally wrong if and only if God forbids them. The second version of Kant’s Categorical Imperative says that every human being is an end in himself—a person whose capacity to choose for himself must be respected—so we should not use people only as means to achieve our own goals but should always at the same time treat them as ends in themselves—as persons whose capacity to choose for themselves must be respected. The moral theory that I think has the strongest…
One of the fundamental notions involving morality has been its connection with religion. With morality being defined as a set of norms, we need someone with authority to create these moral laws. In that, moral law like any other regular law requires a lawmaker. Yet, humans lack the authority to create moral law, since humans are imperfect. Thus, if humans cannot be the author of moral law, then a higher power is required, God. With this notion, the Divine Command theory constructs the idea that when something is morally obligatory it’s only because God commands it, and when something is morally wrong it’s only because God forbids it. The strength of this theory lies with the universally recognize power of God’s commands, regardless of local…