Religion and Morality

Religion and Morality 1- Religion and Morality. Actually, to know the relationship between religion and morality, we need to define each. First of all, morality has three principal definitions. At the first one, morality is the belief concerning what is moral and what is immoral that means also what is right and what is wrong. In this definition, the descriptive usage, morality is created from society, philosophy, religion and/or conscience. Also, we need to know that the immoral actions here cause clear harm. At the second definition, normative and universal sense, morality refers to an ideal code of belief and conduct which would be preferred by the sane moral person but under specified conditions (Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy, 2002) that means the preference of the person plays an important rule. If the action is preferred to be immoral, therefore, it is immoral and if the action is preferred to be moral, therefore, it is moral but of course under certain circumstances. For example, it is common in some societies that eating with your own hand and grabbing the food is not acceptable, so it is in their society immoral and that could mean that if people see you while eating like that, they will stop unless you really stop doing it any more. At the last definition, morality is equal somehow to ethics in which ethics is the study of morality philosophically and morality deals with values which are studied by ethics. For exam, if you dont steal, therefore, this is moral or ethical action (the same) or we can say you are morally or ethically right. On the other hand, the definition of religion can be a system of human thought which usually includes a set of narratives, symbols, beliefs, and practice that give meaning to the practitioners experiences of life through reference to a higher power, deity, or ultimate truth (Geertz, 1982). Also, we can mention that the definition of religion can differentiate from people to others. For example, the religion for Muslims can mean the best way to live the life, because Allah has sent all his massages which received by the prophets who make us understand what is going on? and what are we? and other things. But for others, religion cannot be that thing which can be related to everything in the life. Also, others could relate the religion to afterlife. Somehow religion control behavior, for example, it is not allowed to listen to songs which may influence someone too much with non useful feelings such as too much of love (negative love), therefore, the person may isolate somehow and his productivity for the society will be finished, but instead of that the religion will suggest the person to listen to songs that stimulate him to do something useful for the society. Many opinions were made and discussed through ancient time and modern time according to many religions and religious scholars about the strong relationship between religion and morality. Some of them said that the religion including Allahs books (the religious books such as Quran, Bible, etc), the Teachings of the prophets, and the classification and details of the scholars who came after prophets are the resources of morality, in other words, we can say that every action are directed by religion and if there are some actions which are new, we can do a Measurement between those in the religious books and the new ones. But the question is why? And the answer comes from Muslims who say that the humankind and life and even everything in the world were/are/are being made by Allah who knows what is suitable for human themselves. For instance, cheating is prohibited in Islam according to what prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) said the one who cheated is not from us. This example is a di rect one. Another action like taking drugs, Muslims here depend on Measurement, therefore, the wrong and the right actions are studied carefully for a suitable time and under specific conditions before we can say it is moral and immoral. And after all, Muslims found that the drugs are as same as wine, which is prohibited and mentioned in Quran, because of its bad effects on humankind, so the drugs are prohibited and it is immoral to take it. (Well even though, sometimes some Muslims dont apply this values and standards). On the other hand, some philosophers said that the religion does not cover all things that are related to morality, in other words, morality here is not directed by religion, but the religion is a part of morality and we can say here that if you do something religiously or not, it is moral either way (Surely under conditions). So they believe that morality can act without religion. They believe that there are things that we can change and create, so we as humans will put the standards for these things, For example, the animals right. The animals right is the idea that the most basic interests of animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of humans (Encyclopà ¦dia Britannica, 2007). Accordingly, the animals should be treated like human, for instance, they may have right to get a passport, so they can pass the borders with a permission and also you can add to the animals right the rights for living, eating,. etc. 2- Conventional and Reflective Moral Standards. Conventional moral standards are those which we get them from society and they did not change, they may not change, and they may be right or wrong. In other words, conventional moral standards are set of moral things in a society which have been thought to every person in that society. Also, we can define it in another way which is a concept of proper behaviour that reflects the values of a particular social or political context, Distinguished from a moral understanding which is authoritative across space and time (Gumbertb, 2008). For example, in some societies the girl should stay virgin till she gets married, regardless the religion rules. So from the beginning, it is known that staying virgin for a girl is a must and that means if she breaks the rule, she will be punished (we are not going to discuss this issue because it is out of topic). After this we can assume that staying virgin is right to do, so it is moral, and steel or remove virginity knowing that the girl have done som ething wrong is wrong to do, so it is immoral. On the other hand, it is not that big case in other societies. So, we can say that the conventional moral standards can be a behavior. Another example is that in some regions people will not mention their moms names because they feel like it is not important and it may be sensitive although they will mention it if it necessary for the police man, for example. Accordingly, people start doing this thing especially when they face a situation or case. In 1985, Kohlberg who created the stages of moral development mentioned that conventional but in reasoning concept in which the self enters society by filling social roles. Individuals are receptive of approval or disapproval from other people as it reflects societys accordance with the perceived role. They try to be a good boy or good girl to live up to these expectations, having learned that there is inherent value in doing so. ( We are not going to discuss it because it has psychological reasons) is really exists and everyone in the society should apply it. For instance, people in GCC countries are so generous, so all next generation are also generous. So we can assume that the generous has developed to be a common behavior in that society and who does not admit it and do it will damage his/ her fame among people, therefore, it is moral to be generous, and it is immoral to be not generous (stingy). Also, we have to mention that we have like a common related world conventional moral standards. Actually, these standards appeared because of the ease of communication between two or more societies or groups of people in such a way the behavior or action that are traditionally being used in societies may transfer to others. For example, when I was searching in Google months ago, I discovered that Spanish people write ( gagagaga ) when they laughing instead of ( hahahahahaha or lol ) which are commonly used, and back then I discovered also that some guys are using it without knowing that. Actually, I was surprised because it is too fast (I mean how can?). So, the media are playing important role in delivering not only behavior but also almost everything. Reflective moral standards can be those in which the person does them because he knows that they may cause damage to another person, in other words, the person will not do things that hurt others because he thinks about others rights. For example, if the teacher of an high school class gives the all student the same marks like B+ the weak student will not complain, but the good student will definitely complain because he has been harmed and also it is not fear, therefore, the teacher should assure that it does not hurt good students, and he should stop doing such an action. So, we can say that if you are going to harm, stop acting, but if you are going to benefit, dont stop because harming is immoral and benefiting is moral. Another example is that a government will not allow oil companies to drop their fragment oil in the sea because it may hurt the fishing process in which fishermen fish fishes from water and in order to not harm the environment. Indeed, many killing cases were happed because of breaking the reflective moral standards, one case in which one high school boy killed another one. The police men were asking him but it was useless. Then they went to that high school to investigate. They discovered that all students who were friends to the killer said that he has been kicked after the school was finished since he entered the school by group of students. Then the investigators assume that the group of students which kicked him helped him to develop hate, and this hate was huge enough to let him kill one of them. After that the police men closed the case without imprison the killer, yet they gave him psychological appointments and tests in the hospital. Actually, Conventional and Reflective moral standards are related so much in such way they are useful for us to find the moral standards. Basically, we mean that the moral standards are gathered from what we can called it society standards plus the standards in which we do not harm anyone. Also, we can add that the somehow the conventional and reflective moral standards are not same. Conventional standards are discuss things that are inherited from the society and related to human behavior, but Reflective standards are related to the relationship between the person and either individual or group of people. Accordingly, we can do everything that is right, yet we do not stop others rights. 3- Professional ethics and Morality Morals and the expression, moral values are generally associated with a personal view of values. Personal morals tend to reflect beliefs relating to sex, drinking, gambling, etc. They can reflect the influence of religion, culture, family and friends (Lichtman, 1995). That means morality is carrying the rule in which we should follow. For example, when we say dont smoke, dont cheat, or dont harm people, we expect anyone to say that it is a rule that we should apply. Also, we can say that the rule like dont cheat because it is wrong for many reasons like..etc or drive slow because it is right for certain reasons, so many people know them as dos and donts or what is right to do and what is wrong to not do. For instance, when we go to a public place like mall, we should not smoke because it is wrong to do in such place. Also, the morality is influenced by a lot of things such as culture, religion, behaviour, traditions etc. So we can find that morality is giving us the rules in which we should apply. On the other hand, Professional ethics are slightly different from Morality. Professional ethics concerns the moral issues that arise because of the specialist knowledge that professionals attain, and how the use of this knowledge should be governed when providing a service to the public (Chadwick, 1998 ). That means how the moral issues, values, and standards are used and it gives the explanations about the cases under certain circumstances. In other words, the right action is right this what morality is carrying but the reasons, situations, and circumstances are discussed in a certain professions ethics. For example, what is right in business may not be right in teaching. Also we can add that the wrong action is decided in the same way. Therefore, we have ethics in each profession. So we can find that professions play an important rule to connect morality and professions. In fact, the morality has an integrative relationship with professional ethics and it is tough to distinguish between them even when we write their definitions. Actually, morality provide us with rules that comes from many resources and then professional ethics take these rules and change, explain, or edit them, accordingly, ethics have many types according to professions. For instance, in our university it is not allowed to cheat according to the AIP (Academic Integrity Policy) and knowing that cheating is prohibited as a moral standard; we can see how the moral standard is acting like professional ethics which is the teaching ethics here. So applying the ethics can lead us to achieve the moral standard in our university. Another example is that a new company want to make a rule list for its workers. They would look at the moral standards, and then they will create or fabricate the rules in such a way it will be suitable for workers, and also it will not harm anyone unless he/she harms the company. In other words, we can find that the company uses the moral values to create its own ethics which is the companys ethics. On the other hand, people use morality as well as ethics in which they have the same meaning or they are equal to each other. They use morality to decide which is good and bad and which is white and black, yet they use ethics to decide the same thing in the same way (commonly use). REFERENCES 1- Professional ethics (2004). The Wikipedia online encyclopaedia. Retrieved October 29, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Professional_ethicsaction=history 2- Morality (2009). The Wikipedia online encyclopaedia. Retrieved October 29, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moralityaction=history 3- Gumbertb (2008). What is Conventional Morality? Answer.com (the worlds leading QA site). Retrieved October 28, 2009, from http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_Conventional_Morality 4- Religion ethics Religions (2009). BBC. Retrieved October 29, 2009, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/ 5- Lichman.J, (1985).Whats the difference between ethics and morality? Arent my personal moral values enough to guide my decision making?. What do you stand for?. Retrieved October 27, 2009, from http://www.scribblers-ink.com/professional_ethics.html 6- Stephen M. (2004). Morality and Ethics: An Introduction, dynamic chiropractic, Retrieved October 27, 2009, from http://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=46121 7- Kohlbergs stages of moral development, (2006).wikia. Retrieved October 26, 2009, from http://psychology.wikia.com/index.php?title=Kohlberg%27s_stages_of_moral_developmentaction=history 8- Religion vs. Morality, (2009). Events at Stanford . Retrieved October 25, 2009, from http://events.stanford.edu/events/202/20235/ 9- Morality without religion, (2009), Harvard, Retrieved October 24,2009, from http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~mnkylab/publications/recent/HauserSingerMoralRelig05.pdf

Animal Farm Dystopia :: Literary Analysis

Animal Farm is about a group of animals taking over the farm in the search for freedom and equality, but over time with wrong decisions made one animal takes control of all. Animal Farm is an example of a dystopia because it is based on five out of the nine traits dystopias have these traits are restrictions, fear, dehumanization, conformity, and control. One quality of a dystopia that is very well represented in Animal Farm is restriction. The animals had seven commandments that must always be followed and four of them were restrictions. One restriction given to the animals was â€Å"no animal shall ever wear clothes† (19) animals were forbidden from clothes because only humans were supposed to wear them. Another restriction animal had that â€Å"no animal shall ever drink alcohol† (19) the animals could not drink alcohol because only humans did and alcohol caused them to act crazy. One major restriction the animals had was â€Å"no animal shall kill any other animal† (19) this restriction of no killing was made by other animals for all the animals to follow. Animal farm has many examples of dystopia but the strongest quality of one is restriction. In Animal Farm fear is used to keep the animals under control. Old major told the animals â€Å"Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished forever.†(5) Old Major used fear to get the animals to revel by telling them how horrible Johns was, and how john treated them badly and miss feed them. Also fear was used by Squealer when he says â€Å"surely there is no one among you who wants to see Jones come back?†(28) The pigs knew that the animals were mistreated by Johns and that no one wanted him back so the pigs asked for more food so johns would not come back to the farm. Napoleon kept the animals doing what he wanted by scaring them in to thinking that snowball betrayed them â€Å"snowball was declared to be hiding at Foxwood†(63) Napoleon would tell the animals that snowball was doing all kinds of bad things, and some animals were afraid to sleep. Control is used in animal farm to keep the animals away from disobeying. Napoleon took over the farm by controlling the animals he made Snowball be chased out by â€Å"nine enormous dogs.†(43) Napoleon made the dogs chase Snowball out because he had different points of view than Napoleon, and Napoleon wanted to control the animals with his ideas.

Business Past Paper Essay

E of the following topics and write it in the space provided. (i) ‘The changing role of women in the family’ (ii) ‘The involvement of young people in organized sports’ Topic:_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 1. (a) State TWO reasons why a researcher would research the topic which you have stated above. (2 marks) (b) Suggest ONE objective on which a researcher may focus in doing a study on the topic you chose. (2 marks) (c) Based on the objective you suggested in 1 (b), write ONE research question. (2 marks) (d) State ONE appropriate method that may be used to collect data on the topic you chose. (1 mark) (e) Outline why a researcher should use the method you stated in 1 (d) above. (2 marks) Total 9 marks 2. (a) For the topic you have chosen, suggest TWO variables which a researcher may investigate. (2 marks) (b) Identify TWO groups from which a researcher may select a sample to get information on the topic you chose. (2 marks) (c) State ONE method of choosing a sample from ONE of the groups you identified in 2 (b) above. (1 mark) (d) Briefly describe the method you suggested in 2 (c). (2 marks) Total 7 marks 3. (a) Suggest TWO ways to display the data that may be collected on the topic you choose. (2 marks) (b) Explain briefly why the data should be displayed in the ways you suggested in 3 (a). (2 marks) (c) Name TWO statistical measures that a researcher may use to determine how numerical data, such as scores obtained in a study, are related. (2 marks) Total 6 marks Use the information in the passage below to answer questions 4 and 5. ALCOHOL AND FAMILY LIFE In a recent study done on the effects of alcohol on family life, the heads of fifty (50) low income households responded. The following information was obtained and analyzed. 30% of the respondents stated that alcohol consumption deprives some families from satisfying their basic needs, 60% indicated that it is a cause for domestic violence in the home while 10% claimed that it prevented family members from enjoying planned leisure activities. These findings have caused concern for many community groups. Leaders of these groups have indicated their desire to find some solutions to these concerns from the local authorities in their communities. 4. (a) (i) Display the findings obtained in this survey in a pie-graph in the space provided below. (4 marks) (ii) Write ONE statement about the data you displayed in the pie-graph. (2 marks) (b) State ONE characteristic of the sample used in this survey. (1 mark) (c) Name ONE research method that the researcher may have used to collect information. (1 mark) (d) Write ONE question that may be included in the research method you named in 4 (c). (1 mark) Total 9 marks 5. (a) Based on the data provided in the survey, write ONE research question. (2 marks) (b) Based on the findings you displayed in 4 (a) (i), suggest ONE recommendation that may be helpful to the community leaders. (1 mark) (c) State ONE change you would make if you were asked to conduct the study. (1 mark) Total 4 marks

Getting Started With Student Portfolios

There are many wonderful benefits to having students create portfolios--one is the enhancement of critical thinking skills which results from the need for students to develop evaluation criteria. You can also use this criteria to evaluate their work and engage in self-reflection about their progress. Additionally, students are pleased to observe their personal growth, they tend to  have better attitudes toward their work, and they are more likely to think of themselves as writers. The payoff for using portfolios becomes concrete when students discover they can earn college credit and, in some cases, skip a freshman writing class by creating a top notch writing portfolio while they are still in high school.    Before proceeding with assigning a portfolio, familiarize yourself with the rules and credit requirements for such a project. Theres little point to requiring this work from students if theyre not properly credited or dont understand the assignment.   Working Student Portfolio A working portfolio, often a simple file folder containing all the students work, is helpful when used in conjunction with the evaluation portfolio; you can start it prior to deciding what youll require in the evaluation portfolio and thus protect work from being lost. Arrangements must be made, however, to store folders in the classroom. Students at all levels generally become proud as they watch their work accumulate--even students who rarely work will be amazed to see five or more assignments that they actually finished. Getting Started With Student Portfolios There are three main factors that go into the development of a student portfolio assessment. First, you must decide on the purpose of your students  portfolios. For example, the portfolios might be used to show student growth, to identify weak spots in student work, and/or to evaluate your own teaching methods. After deciding the purpose of the portfolio, you will need to determine how you are going to grade it. In other words, what would a student need in their portfolio for it to be considered a success and for them to earn a passing grade? The answer to the previous two questions helps form the answer to the third: What should be included in the portfolio? Are you going to have students put in all  of  their work or only certain assignments? Who gets to choose? By answering the above questions, you are able to start student portfolios off on the right foot. A big mistake some teachers make is to just jump into student portfolios without thinking through exactly how they are going to manage them. To help you answer these questions, you might find it helpful to review the Portfolio Planning Checklist and Suggested Portfolio Items for each kind of portfolio students will keep. If done in a focused way, creating student portfolios will be a rewarding experience for both student and teacher.