1.3 selfishness greed ignorance and sin

Question 1

describe the christian and non christian views of sin

Answer 1

christian view:
- selfish people put themselves first and may do so at the expense of others
- selfishness is wrong as peoplen should have an active concern for others

• The golden rule
• Parable of the good samaritan
  -Jesus says “go and do likewise”, so christians are specifically told that they should go out of their way to help others
• the sheep and the goats

Non christian view
- oppose selfishness especially when self interest leads to the suffering of others
- could argue that selfishness is natural and we have no reason to be anything than selfish

Thomas Hobbes says
- selfishness is the most basic law of nature, to try snd ensure our survival and we are entitled to use others to achieve that mean
- it is in our self interest to enter a contract with others and to limit extremes of our behaviour, so others would limit theirs so we would not actually do whatever we liked to others
-theory of evolution is based on survival of the fittest

Question 2

describe the differing views of greed

Answer 2

christian view
- related to selfishness but is specifically concerned with the use of resources
- in roman catholics, listed as one of the deadly sins
- 1 Timothy 6:10 “thr love of money is the root of all kinds of evil”
- Matthew 6:24 “no one can serve twwp master. for you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. u cannot serve both god and both”
- stewardship, world is created by everyone for equal use,
- 2 corinthians 9:7 specifies that charity must be given willingly

Non Christan View
- many non christians would oppose
- however some say there is a positive aspect to greed
1. society(capalistic one) depends on greed
2. without greed there would be no incentive to work hard, and try to do better
3. scientific progress is stimulated by greed
4. charity can be counter productive, make people dependent on aid

Question 3

describe the differing views on ignorance

Answer 3

christian views:
- everyone has the capacity to tell right from wrong
- generally speaking ignorance is not a valid excuse
-althought jesus did say on the cross “father forgive them for they know not what they do”

Thomas Aquinas teachings on conscience says
- humans are rational, can workout if an action is right or wrong by thinking logically
- naturally inclined to do good as we are created in gods image
- can mistake apparent good for real good, we can minimise the risk of mistaking apparent good by educating the conscience by reading the magisterium
- christian duty to avoid ignorance

non christian view
- most say that it is important that people learn right from wrong and society generally expects that parents in schools would play a part in this

Question 4

describe the views on sin

Answer 4

Most christians say
- any action which goes against the law of god

fundamentalist christians
- the buble is inerrant, everyrhing the bible states to be a sin is a sin and should be avoided
- generally opposed to homosexuality because in leviticus it is described as an abomination

liberal christians
- regard some of the so called sins to be reflections of values of another age, as tthey say the bible was written by humans not by god himself

-most christins regard the 10 commandments and jesus teachings in the sermon on the mount to reflect gods will. and they say anything that goes againsts gods teachings causes problems in the world, which is therefore a sin

Question 5

what are characteristics of a mature conscience?

Answer 5

• free
• clear
• correct
• certain

Question 6

what are ways to educate the conscience to religious and non religious ppl?

Answer 6

religious
- sacred scriptures
-magisterium

non religious
- schools
- parents

Question 7

what does greed selfishness, and ignorance of right and wrong do

Answer 7

greed
- cause injustice as people take more than their fair share of resources

selfishness
- results in people ignoring the needs of others and refusing to go out of their way to help others
- selfish inconsiderate attititudes lead to anti social behaviour, tax dodging and unethical shopping havits

ignorance of right and wrong
- contributing factor of crime,

Question 8

what do buddhists believe in greed hatred and ignorance?

Answer 8

are the three posions
means they are the root cause of actions that lead to bad larma and keep people trapped in the cycle of samsara