Moral Decision Making PDF

Religious Education Support, SLSS MORAL DECISION MAKING 1 1.1 The Meaning of Morality  WHAT IS MORALITY? ❖ How do we know what is right and wrong? ❖ Is something right if it causes pleasure? Religious Education Support, SLS...

Religious Education Support, SLSS MORAL DECISION MAKING 1 1.1 The Meaning of Morality  WHAT IS MORALITY? ❖ How do we know what is right and wrong? ❖ Is something right if it causes pleasure? Religious Education Support, SLSS ❖ How do we know that something is good? ❖ Does evil exist? ❖ Why do we choose to do wrong when we know it is wrong? ❖ Is morality about actions or character? ❖ How do we become good people? ❖ Do we need religion to be moral? ❖ What is the relationship between what is good for 2 me and for others? HAVING CONSIDERED THE PREVIOUS QUESTIONS, ONE MIGHT SAY THAT..... ❖ Human beings have free will - they can therefore make moral choices (decide between right and wrong). Religious Education Support, SLSS ❖ Human beings, by their nature, tend to seek or aspire to what is good; ❖ Human beings are social, and therefore act in a way that reflects awareness of others; ❖ Human beings have the capacity of reason, which enables them to reflect upon what is good and to act in accordance with this reflection, rather than acting on instinct. 3  SO WHAT THEN IS MORALITY? ❖ Morality may be defined as “knowing the difference between right and wrong”. Religious Education Support, SLSS ❖ We make the majority of our decisions on this basis. 4  MORAL CHOICES ❖ Read the following statements and decide which ones have moral implications and which ones do not.  Drinking and driving is wrong  I’d like to help people in need  I got a B on my religion test  Bullying is wrong and hurtful  I would never steal  I’m going to have fruit for lunch  I am always honest – lying is wrong  I can see Mary’s exam, I’m going to copy her answers ❖ How do you know the difference between moral and non-moral choices? 5  MORAL CHOICES Moral choices: ❖ Involve a decision between what is right and what is wrong, or going something good or bad. ❖ Each individual is responsible for the consequences of their moral decisions. The basis for making moral choices is called morality. 6  HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS ❖ When making moral decisions, we must remember that we have relationships with other people and our actions will affect them in different ways. ❖ We connect with other people on three levels: ❖ Interpersonal relationships ❖ One on one ❖ Family and friends ❖ Communal relationships ❖ Groups of people ❖ Clubs, communities etc. ❖ Global relationships ❖ How you relate to people all over the world 7 ❖ Using Fair-trade products affects the people in the third world HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS Family Interpersonal Friends School Relationships Communal Parish Football team Europe Global USA Africa etc… 8  FREEDOM ❖ Do you agree with this phrase: “I have the right to do whatever I please”! ❖ Although we have free will to make any choice, we also have a responsibility to consider others before we make decisions ❖ Respecting the freedom of others builds up human relationships and helps us make responsible moral decisions 9  ACTIONS AND CONSEQUENCES ❖ It is safe to say that almost every action has consequences. ❖ These may be positive or negative. ❖ Sometimes, making a moral decision will result in hardship for ourselves (negative consequence). ❖ In these situations, we must still ensure that the decision we make is the right one. 10  ACTIONS AND CONSEQUENCES ❖ Read the following story: Lotto winner pays tribute to honesty of Centra worker Thursday, June 18th, 2009 - Mary Minihan THE LUCKY Lotto winner who left his ticket in the shop where he bought it has collected his €350,000 prize. Dermot Finglas from Drogheda, Co Louth, was tracked down by Tom Heavey, who works in the McDonnell’s Centra store in the town. Speaking to his local radio station LMFM, Mr Finglas paid tribute to Mr Heavey. Mr Heavey marked the forgotten ticket as “paid for” and put it away for safekeeping until Mr Finglas was identified on CCTV footage. “If people just aspire to be somebody even remotely like Tom. He is richer than anybody I can imagine,” Mr Finglas said. “At the end of the day it gives all of us a bit of hope about all this job situation in this country, people feeling down losing their jobs, and things like this.” Mr Finglas said he was going to “probably hit the Canary 11 Islands with a couple of friends” with his winnings  “Sitting around here thinking about it isn’t going to help me. I’m going to need to go somewhere where nobody knows my name to think about it.” He said friends in Chicago had sent him messages saying they had read the story in their local newspapers. Religious Education Support, SLSS Meanwhile, Mr Heavey revealed people had written to him to compliment him on his honesty. “Another man sent me a Quick Pick ticket,” he said. He insisted he had no regrets. “I never had any regrets. The ticket wasn’t mine. It was good news in a sea of bad news,” he said. Mr Heavey said he was pleased Mr Finglas had collected his winnings yesterday, after being told on Tuesday that a number of routine inquiries would have to be made. 12 Article reprinted with kind permission of The Irish times  ACTIONS AND CONSEQUENCES Research the story of Niall Mellon to see how the consequences of our actions can affect all our relationships: interpersonal, communal and global. Religious Education Support, SLSS http://www.irishtownship.com/images/hometop1.jpg 13  RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES ❖ Rights: ❖ A right is something that you are entitled to in order to Religious Education Support, SLSS live a dignified and meaningful life. ❖ Examples: Food, shelter, clothing ❖ A moral person will respect and protect the rights of others. ❖ In 1948, the United Nations issued the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to establish the rights of every human being ❖ Examples: The right to life, the right to nationhood, the right to freedom from slavery etc. 14  RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES ❖ Responsibilities: ❖... are something that you should do as a moral person Religious Education Support, SLSS ❖ Rights and responsibilities go hand in hand. ❖ You have a right to education, and you have a responsibility to work hard at school. ❖ You also have a responsibility to respect other students right to education, and not be disruptive. ❖ We also have a responsibility to take care of the earth, to preserve and protect it for future generations. This is known as ‘Stewardship of the Earth’. 15  INFLUENCES ON MORALITY ❖ An influence is something that affects the decisions that we make and the way we feel Religious Education Support, SLSS about things. ❖ We are influenced by many different people, situations and things. These influences change as we get older. ❖ Your values are a major influence on your moral decisions. 16  VALUES ❖ What are values? ❖ Values are anything that you consider good, worthwhile Religious Education Support, SLSS or important. ❖ Your decisions are always influenced by your values, causing you to do something good or avoid something that goes against your values. ❖ Examples of values: ❖ Honesty ❖ Freedom ❖ Friendship 17  SOURCES OF MORALITY Our morality (our sense of right and wrong) comes from a number of different sources Religious Education Support, SLSS Family State Friends Sources of Morality Religion School 18  1. FAMILY ❖ First and most important source of morality. Religious Education Support, SLSS ❖ Parents teach children to differentiate between good and bad, right and wrong. ❖ Children learn to treat other people with respect and they carry that value with them throughout their lives. 19  2. FRIENDS ❖ Friendships help us to become confident, building our self esteem. Religious Education Support, SLSS ❖ Valuing friendships encourages us to respect others and be considerate towards other peoples feelings. ❖ However, friends can also have a negative influence on our morality. ❖ Peer pressure can influence you to do things that are morally wrong because you want to fit in with your group of friends. 20  3. SCHOOL ❖ School influences our morality in a number of ways. ❖ The ethos of the school describes the kind of place that school should be and the way you should behave in it: Religious Education Support, SLSS ❖ What is your school ethos? ❖ The school has it’s own set of rules, outlining how you should act while you are there: ❖ Think of some of your school rules that relate to morality ❖ Many classes in school aim to teach you about morality and about the consequences of your actions: 21 ❖ In your opinion, what subjects (at both junior and senior level) teach these topics?  4. RELIGION ❖ Every religion teaches it’s followers about morality, and has it’s own set of religious values. Religious Education Support, SLSS ❖ Many religious values influences state laws, for example Catholic countries prohibit divorce, Muslim countries prohibit relationships outside of marriage. ❖ Christianity teaches followers to ‘treat others as you would like to be treated’. This belief influences Christians to make good moral decisions. ❖ The sacred text is a source of moral guidance for followers of every religion. 22  5. STATE ❖ The government make laws based on the common good – what will benefit the Religious Education Support, SLSS citizens of the country. ❖ It is illegal to kill another human being ❖ It is illegal to steal ❖ When you abide by the laws of the country, you are looking to the state as a source of morality. 23  OTHER SOURCES OF MORALITY ❖ Media ❖ Highlights important issues and encourages people to Religious Education Support, SLSS do the right thing (for example drink driving advertisements) ❖ TV programs often carry moral messages, where the characters face moral dilemmas and make moral decisions ❖ Emotions ❖ Sympathy and compassion encourage us to help people in trouble or in need ❖ Anger and hatred can have negative consequences on our actions 24