From the category archives:

Ethical Values

Was It Fair for God to Punish Adam and Eve?

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This is a guest question by Dr. Knight.
When you read the Genesis story of Adam and Eve, you notice that God tells Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They do, and God punishes them by expelling them from the garden. Notice, though, that [...]

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Should You Cheat Out of Love for Yourself?

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Situation ethics was developed by Joseph Fletcher in the 1960s. It says love should always trump our moral principles. So, if stealing is wrong, and I see someone in desperate need of food, then I could steal some food and give it to that person. Out of love. But, I ask, can you do the [...]

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How Do You Decide Whether or Not to Cheat in College?

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One reason you should not cheat as a college student is that you want to follow the honor code at your institution. One reason you should cheat as a college student is that you want to be competitive among your peers who cheat. So, you face a dilemma.
Now, research shows that if you attend a [...]

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Not All Cheating Is “Real Cheating,” Is It?

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We all know students can buy finished papers online. It is way easier to finish a paper that way than having to do all the research, thinking, and writing on your own. Now, let us say you need to write a paper on ethics and teaching. What rationale would you need in order to buy [...]

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What Do Your Values Matter?

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I think it is safe to say that Jesus and Obama have the same values. I also believe that Jesus is the truth and Obama is not. But, if both these persons hold the same values and only one of them is the truth, then it cannot be the values that make the difference between [...]

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What Does Your Forgiveness Even Matter?

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In my last question, I wondered if forgiveness involves making excuses for those who hurt us. Today I am thinking about al-Megrahi who was recently set free from a lifetime sentence in a Scottish prison. He is responsible for the death of 270 innocent people at the Lockerbie bombing in 1988.
Now, eight years later, al-Megrahi [...]

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Which Is Easier: To Treat Others Fairly Or To Love Them?

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Here are the possibilities when we consider fairness and love, and which of the two is easier.
1: It is easier to be fair. To treat someone fairly, you just get out your moral calculator, punch in your values, and do what it tells you to do. Or maybe it works better to use the image [...]

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Being Fair - Is That the Best You Can Do?

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Think about a person you trust.
Here is who comes to my mind: the clerk at our local post office. Male, white, middle-aged, overweight, and balding. He has worked there for a long time and I imagine his job consists of a lot of routine work.
He is fascinating to watch. When you ask him a question, [...]

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What Does It Take to Receive Well?

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It is hard to develop the ability to give. It is also quite a challenge to determine the different reasons why we ought to give. Plus, we have to do the self-examining work of figuring out whether or not our personal motivations are what we need them to be.
Now, let us say it all works [...]

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Why Do We Give?

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I wonder about the motives that drive us human beings to give. When I try to assess what my own motives are when I give something, I am not always sure I can tell the truth. Not because I do not want to tell the truth. But because I cannot trust myself to detect the [...]

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