Christians and moral decision making,

What is a moral decision?

• A moral decision is a decision in which you need to decide if something is right or wrong, for example

• Abortion

• Euthanasia

• Capital Punishment

• Fornication

The role of conscience…

Is greatly linked with morality. In Euthyphro , Christians come to the conclusion that

God gives each of us morality, as God is goodness, and without being good, he would cease to be God. A bit like black

deciding it wants to be white, 1. it couldn’t and 2. it would cease to be black

A CONSEQUENTIALIST IS SOMEONE WHO MAKES THEIR DECISION BASED ON THE

POSSIBLE OUTCOMES- THIS IS LIKELY TO BE BY FOLLOWING YOUR CONSCIENCE!!

Conscience. (… God’s voice?)

• Christians believe that God gave us our consciences, they are telling us the good

• A conscience is a good argument for the existence of God, if a divine being didn’t give us a subjective moral value, then who did?

• A conscience is the inner voice, telling you what is right, and what is wrong.

How does our conscience effect our moral decision making?

• “To a Christian, to do ones duty is to do the will of God.” – D.Z. Phillips

This shows that our duty is to do what God wills, and as some Christians believe God gave us our conscience, we should follow

it to make moral decisions

Emil Brunner.

“The good consists in always doing what God wills at any particular time.”

This shows that to be good, means you have to do anything God commands-

So how do we know just what God wants. . .

The authority of the Bible• For some Christians, for example orthodox protestants

(Jehovah’s witnesses)- The Bible is the most important source of authority there is

• Some Christians, such as Liberal protestants, (Church of England) believe that the Bible needs re-interpreting for a modern society, for example, many writings that now seem sexist, this is thought because the Bible was written when it was a patriarchal society

• Many Christians believe in the Bible’s authority because in the new testament, Jesus came to us, and showed us how to live

A DEONTOLOGIST WOULD FOLLOW THE TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE WHEN MAKING A

MORAL DECISION!!

In the new testament…

Jesus told us…

Answer strangers cry for help,

Love your brother as you love yourself

Forgive your enemy,

Do not test the Lord, your God

The Bible…

• Can act as one part of our moral decision making,

• It can give us good guidance on how Jesus would respond to a situation

• Gives us the 10 commandments- some Christians argue this is the ultimate source of morality, argued as ‘primary precepts’

The authority of the Church

• Some Christians believe that God speaks to the world through the Church, or rather Church leaders, for example, Bishops, Priests, the Pope

• The Church decides moral doctrines for the believers of that sector, on things like abortion- therefore it’s regarded as important

The Church…

• Offers guidance on moral issues, for example in million dollar baby where Frankie results to his priest for answers

• If a woman was considering abortion, the Church would guide her into the decision they believe is right

• Is where you go to confess your sins, to the priest, to keep a clear conscience

Situation Ethics

• Joseph Fletcher (1905-1991): Situational Ethics, The New Morality, 1963

Joseph Fletcher is known as the founder of situational ethics,

Other Christians have also used the concept before it was publicly know however, for

example, Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The four working principles

• 1. Pragmatism – The main goal is love, and you must try to achieve love no matter what

• 2. Relativism –each time you make a decision, it’s not fixed rules- it’s always different and relevant to that one situation

• 3. positivism – you have to try to be achieving the greater good

• 4. personalism - it’s personal to you, it’s not up to anyone else, and that’s your conscience talking to you

Situation Ethics

• Allows flexibility you don’t have to have one rule for every occasion, meaning you’re more likely to come to a good decision “Loves decisions are made situationally, not prescriptively”

• Christians would follow situation ethics because they need to know what is right for themselves, once again relating to conscience