Moral dilemmas

Moral dilemma:- any difficult or perplexing situation or problem What is a moral dilemma? Moral dilemma:- any difficult or perplexing situation or problem

Using your morals You will be shown a series of moral dilemmas. You must discuss in your groups what you would and why. When you have decided your action you must write it on your white board. This task requires you to use your morals

You are an inmate in a concentration camp You are an inmate in a concentration camp. A sadistic guard is about to hang your son who tried to escape and wants you to pull the chair from underneath him. He says that if you don’t he will not only kill your son but some other innocent inmate as well. You don’t have any doubt that he means what he says. What should you do?

A man’s wife is pregnant, her health goes south quickly A man’s wife is pregnant, her health goes south quickly. The doctor’s tell the man he must choose between his wife and his unborn child. He must sign a paper allowing the doctors to abort his baby and save his wife, or he must take his chances, and possibly both the wife and the baby could die. In one instance the husband wants desperately to abort the baby, because in his reasoning, he only has one wife, and without her he can’t have any other babies. If they abort this baby, they can always have another one. The doctors wants to save both the wife and the baby, and risk accidentally killing both.

Hijackers take over a plane that you are on and kill the pilot Hijackers take over a plane that you are on and kill the pilot. If you overpower the hijackers, there is no one able to land the plane safely and it will crash killing all 150 passengers on board. If you don’t overpower the hijackers, they might crash into a civilian target, killing even more people, or they might land the plane safely – you don’t know. What do you do?

A pregnant woman leading a group of people out of a cave on a coast is stuck in the mouth of that cave. In a short time high tide will be upon them, and unless she is unstuck, they will all be drowned except the woman, whose head is out of the cave. Fortunately, (or unfortunately,) someone has with him a stick of dynamite. There seems no way to get the pregnant woman loose without using the dynamite which will inevitably kill her; but if they do not use it everyone will drown. What should they do?

You are on a trek through the Antarctic and you run out of food supplies. Several of your fellow explorers have died as a result. Is it right for the survivors to eat the bodies of the dead?

So we all have morals Whether we agreed or not the fact that we all had an opinion on the moral dilemmas proves we have morals. Our morals are what we use to judge whether or not something is good or bad. This is called a moral judgement.

But what has this got to do with God? Some people use the existence of morals to prove the existence of God. People argue that our moral are innate (we are born with them) It must be God who has given us these morals Therefore God exists. These innate morals are called the ‘conscience’.

What do you think and why? Conscience The conscience Many people believe that they instinctively know the difference between right and wrong because their conscience tells them. Deciding the right course of action based on upbringing. Or, as some Christians think, it is the ‘voice of God’ telling them what to do. The voice of God is then supported by the Bible What do you think and why?

The Bible When Christians want to know how God wants them to live, an obvious place to look is in the teachings of the Bible. Many of the teachings and stories have messages for Christians to think about and discuss with others. But it is not always that straightforward? Why do you think this is? ‘In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you.’ (Matt 7:12) As you can see here, some messages mean the same now as they did 2,000 years ago. What might be another example of a message that has stood the test of time?

The Ten Commandments You shall have no other Gods before me. You shall not worship idols. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord. Keep the Sabbath holy. Honour your father and mother. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not lie. You shall not covet (be jealous). Christians would also say that due to the morals of the ten commandments still being relevant even though they are thousands of years old prove that they are the word of God and therefore God exists.

Genie- A case study One piece of evidence that people use to try and prove that morals are innate and not learnt is using a case of a child called Genie . Watch this short video clip about Genie- How could her story help prove the existence of God.

Feral Children Oxana Malaya (Оксана Малая) (born November 1983) was found as an 8-year-old feral child in Ukraine in 1991, having lived most of her life in the company of dogs. She picked up a number of dog-like habits and found it difficult to master language. Oxana’s alcoholic parents were unable to care for her. They lived in an impoverished area where there were wild dogs roaming the streets. She lived in a dog kennel behind her house where she was cared for by dogs and learned their behaviours and mannerisms. She growled, barked and crouched like a wild dog, sniffed at her food before she ate it, and was found to have acquired extremely acute senses of hearing, smell, and sight. When Oxana was found she was placed in a childrens home. Upon being given her first meal she immediatly gave half to a child next to her. Does this prove she has morals?

Remember to use the 6 mark structure to help you!!! Time to get thinking! ‘The existence of morals is the best proof that God exists.’ Do you agree? Give reasons for your answer, showing you have thought about more than one point of view. Remember to use the 6 mark structure to help you!!!