Does God determine Morality?

Essay by BlaznCherries21Junior High, 9th gradeA+, April 2004

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Morals are the more serious aspects of how we behave and how we treat others. This means that failure to follow the more important morals will result in a much harsher reaction from others. Examples of this would include racial discrimination, physical abuse and stealing. Many strict fundamentalists believe that there will be serious consequences from a higher being as well. Therefore, these people follow the moral law very strictly, sometimes in fear. In their opinion, without a divine lawgiver, there can be no universal moral law. The view that God creates the moral law is called the "Divine Command Theory of Ethics." According to this view, what makes an action right depends on what God says is right. There is an ongoing debate on whether the world can have morality without God's word or if it would be in complete chaos if left solely up to us.

Fundamentalists defend the Bible by claiming that the Bible is necessary for people to know how to live moral lives.

They come to this conclusion

through several different assumptions. Their first assumption is that God exists. Another assumption is that morality is derived from the nature of God. Then they assume that God revealed absolute morality to mankind. Therefore, people must rely on the Bible to know what is moral and immoral. They imagine life without the Bible as a moral chaos resembling that of ancient Israel before the time of its kings. Yet another assumption is that man is incapable of making moral decisions without some kind of divine guidance. In other words, man must have God's help or else he just can't determine exactly what is right and what is wrong. It is often nice to think that we will live in another world after we die in this...