Respond to the discussion about ethics and God (for online class) - Essay Example

Response to 2nd comment: Aquinas, like me, believed in God. He explained how humans attain satisfaction and happiness through their belief in God. Whereas I discussed how people would differ in their compliance with ethics through a belief in God. What is common between our views is that a belief or disbelief in God makes a difference. Response to 3rd comment: You compliment your own agreement with my stance on the subject when you say that in some people, “there is no sense for ethics whatsoever”.

It is not that they don’t have any sense. Instead, they don’t make use of it. They may not display ethics either because they don’t believe in God, or else, they don’t fear God even if they believe. Here I don’t mean to say that all atheists lack ethics. There are many who are not believers yet have an intrinsic desire to remain decent in their attitude, and hence display ethics. Therefore, ethics is there in every human being, though its display is governed not only by the individual’s belief in God.

There are several other factors involved in it like personality traits, genetic traits etc. It is being hard for you to conceive how psychology is related to God because you tend to see God through the eyes of religion. Also, I don’t consider science in contrast with the concept of God, because many things said in the Holy Books are being proved by science. Response to class-mates opinions: 1. You have agreed that ethics is ingrained in humanity, but you don’t consider it to be dependent upon a belief in God.

I would like to ask you if a criminal is smart enough to escape worldly punishment, would he abstain from doing wrong then? Irrespective of the fact that ethics is there in him as he is a human, would he have any respect for ethics? Certainly not! Here you may argue that I am speaking of an ideal case in which the criminal is sure that he will not be taken to task for his wrong deed, whereas in actual, every body knows there is a strict regulatory system in every country. So you should realize that ethics is not just about abstaining from crimes that are largely visible.

Even if someone lies, he disregards ethics. So would anyone care not to lie if it benefits without a fear of God? Certainly not! I agree with you when you say that ethics is in-built feature of humanity. I also agree with you when you say that ethics would exist if God does not in people’s perception. However, you need to realize that humans may have little regard for ethics, without a belief in God. 2. You have also said that a society’s legal system is enough to cause human’s to display ethics in their attitude.

And also, you have considered such minor requirements of ethics as speaking truth under the umbrella term of “basic moral obligation”. I agree to you when you say that people would tend not to disregard ethics in public but would disregard it for basics. I also agree to you when you consider ethics as inside every human irrespective of his/her belief in God. Technically, you have constructed sentences in a way that make me say, “I totally agree with you!” You already seem to agree that people would disregard ethics if they think God does not exist.

Because abstaining from bigger crimes and doing smaller ones does not mean that an individual respects ethics. It is just that he/she fears punishment. 3. I agree to you that religions provide their followers with a sound understanding of ethics. However, such understanding may vary