CHAPTER TWO – How do Religions Teach What is Right and Wrong?
As it has been discussed in the last chapter, saying ‘what is right or what is wrong’ is a moral issue, which is based on people’s views or beliefs. The latter is subject to religions. Religions guide people what should be followed, as it is right and what must be avoided as it’s wrong. There are different religions in the world. We will take two religions, Christianity and Islam, as examples to see how they teach people on right or wrong.
In Christianity, people believe that their lives have been created by the God, and that ‘God loved the world so much that he gave his only son (Jesus Christ) that everyone who has faith in him may not die but have eternal life’. Therefore, Christians follow Jesus’ words and believe that they will get the guidance on right and wrong issues.
There are three ways to teach Christians on the moral issues. First is the teaching of Jesus Christ, the fonder of Christianity, by his words and advice to his people. For instance, ‘Love each other’; ‘Love your enemies’; ‘Love your neighbour as yourself ’; and ‘Always threat others as you would like them to treat you’. Jesus thought that people need to be changed from their inside – ‘reborn’. These inner changes make people more understanding each other and know themselves, others and their relationship with God. The second way is the teaching of the church. The church is thought to be physical body of Jesus, and the place to continue his work. There are distinct branches (denominations) in the world, such as the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England. Each of them teaches people Jesus’ words by learning Bible and discussing the moral issues. However, disagreements exist on some moral issues among different churches. For example, while the Roman Catholic Church thinks the abortion as a wrong doing, the Church of England accepts it in certain cases. Though belong to the same church, some Christians consider that any war is wrong whereas the others say that it may be necessary in certain situations. The third way to evaluate the things right or wrong is by individual conscience. The ‘inner sense’ will tell what is right or wrong. But human beings are not perfect and they need to be guided and helped by God.
Islam is another religion and people who believe Islam are called Muslim. Like Christians, Muslims believe God as well. They accept and love their God - Allah and consider a person’s life as a gift of Allah. Unlike Christians who learn God’s words from Bible, Muslims read their God’s will from Holy Qur’an. The will of Allah was believed to delivery to Prophet Muhammad who recorded the words in the Qur’an. In the Muslim’s view, human are born equal but some of them are spoiled and go wrong way in the later life. Allah is able to protect people’s mind from damage. In the other words, if you follow Allah’s will, you will know what is right and what is wrong. Muslims believe that the world we live is just and mercy and they prepare to forgive the wrongdoings and put things into right way.
The rules of Christianity are written in the ‘Ten Commandments’ (For the full original version of the Ten Commandments, see Appendix 1) which were created by ‘God’ and sent to Moses (see picture on the right). Rules of Islam are written in the Qur’an, which was created by Angel Gabriel, and written down by Muhammad, the messenger of the Muslim God.
There are many things which are the same between Christianity and Islam. They both believe that there’s only one god and all people should be submitted to the god. Both religions have a point of to forgive or not to forgive. Both tend to forgive because if we cannot forgive each other, we won’t have a peaceful world.
In some points, they make contrasts with each other. Muslims have to pray five times a day. The prophet Muhammad told that Muslims should constantly remember and submit to God by praying five times each day, wherever they are. By contrast, the Christians do not pray regularly, but at occasions, usually when they are in trouble, they pray and wish for God’s help.
CHAPTER THREE – What are our Values and are there Common Value that we can agree on?
Value is defined as the usefulness, helpfulness, or importance of something, especially in comparison with other things. There are a variety of values on many different things and issues. Different religions may have a common on the values of some issues but disagree on the others.
Both Christians and Muslims believe that the universe was created by God or Allah, and God gives people the responsibility of looking after the environment, which includes both natural environment and animals. For example, Islam teaches that ‘Earth is green and beautiful, and Allah has appointed you His stewards over it’ (Qur’an, 6:165). Consistent with Islam, Christianity teaches his people that ‘The world was created by God and is an expression of his love. As children of God, we have a responsibility to care for it’. But they also have different rules on some issues, such as having animals as food. Although both Christianity and Islam have an agreement on the protection of animals, Islam demands his people to do not eat some animals, such as pig. By contrast, there is no such limiting on food in Christians though some Christians choose to be vegetarian.
There is a controversy on some issues between religion teaching and modern social issues. One of the big issues is environmental protection. On the one hand, religion people, such as Muslin, are taught to look after environment which Allah created for them. On the other hand, the people are doing things which are harmful to their environment, e.g. air pollution produced by motorists. This controversy arise a question: Should Muslims stop driving cars if they really obey Allah’s words on caring environment? Surely, it is a very hard question to be answered. As we all know that in our modern society, car is so important that it can not be imagined without car in our daily life. Therefore, it’s crucial to balance between car caused air pollution and environmental protection. In my opinion, all global citizens, not just religious people, have a responsibility to our environment, and we should use a car in its minimum, and try to find other ways to replace car driving, such as using public transport, or riding bicycle, or even walking, which will build up our health. If all people over the world act on this way, our environment would be protected very well.
As religion people follow and obey the rules made by God, our pupils should follow and obey the rules made by school. Religion lessons will help us doing daily learning well and behaviour ourselves as it teaches us to judge things right or wrong. It’s absolutely necessary to obey class commandments in order to ensure that the National Curriculum is carried out smoothly and effectively. In addition, by learning and discussing the moral issues in R&S lessons, we have got conscience, i.e. ‘inner sense’ to deal with our daily life, as our conscience tells us what is right which we should do, and what is wrong which we should avoid.
CHAPTER FOUR – Wealth and Poverty
In class, we discussed some quotations which people made about money. Mainly the quotations tell how to do with money and what they are. Here are some of the quotes we talked about.
1.'God gave us wealth not that we should be hoarders but dispensers'
- Thomas Manton
The first one means that we should spend or give away money, but not hide it away for yourself.
2.'Money is like muck, it is good unless it be spread.'
- Francis Bacon
This means that money should be spread among all people, not just in the hands of a few as which will make some rich, but others poor.
3.'Money may not bring happiness but a lack of it brings sorrow'
- Anonymous
This quote means that money might not be able to make rich people very happy, but the people who live in poverty are very unlikely to be happy.
4. ‘No one would have remembered the Good Samaritan if he only had good intentions, but he had money as well.’
- Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher means that people only think about other people’s wealth, but not their heart, and personality.
5. ‘People have been known to make a rich life for themselves with few possessions often people need to buy things because their hearts are empty.’
- Antony De Mello
Antony De Mello’s quote means that people who are very rich are known as heartless because they buy all sorts of decoration and adornment containing god, to make them more holy.
Wealth and poverty are produced by unequal distribution of wealth around the world. Some people are so rich that they have too much more money than they need, while others are so poor that they are hungry to die.
All religions believe it’s necessary to have a right attitude on money or wealth otherwise people will miss really important things in life. Money itself is not bad thing, but it could be evil if it is abused. In the other words, it all depends on people’s attitude towards money or wealth. Here are two examples of religious attitude towards to wealth.
Christianity teaches that all created things are from God and belong to God. Following the beliefs, many Christians give one tenth of their possessions to the church or charity. Christians think it’s their responsibility to support the poor. Similarly, Islam teaches its people that all wealth is a gift from Allah. Therefore, Allah has the right to demand how the wealth is used. Muslims believe that money is of value only when it is used in the right way. When people borrow money from Muslims, they should not charge interest (practise usury), because this exploits those in need. Also, they believe that ‘Richness does not lie in abundance of worldly goods, but true richness is the richness of the soul.’ This means that you should not rate other people’s richness by their money, but you should by their heart and soul. (Hadith).
Based on their beliefs, Christians have established charity organizations to help the poor over the world, whatever their race, religion or colour. They help the poor in both long-term aid (teaching them how to help themselves) and short-term aid (providing emergency relief in sudden disasters). Also, they educate people how the poverty is caused and what the attitude towards the poor should be. Parallel to Christians, Muslims also have their organizations to collect money by sadaqah (give money to charity) and provide it to help the poor in both Muslim society and international disasters.
Consistent to religious people who show their attitude and support to the poor, many non-religions also take an action to help the poor. One example is the international Jubilee 2000 campaign. In this event, 70,000 people made a human chain around the Birmingham city to show their support to poor countries. They demanded the leaders of the world to ‘cancel the debts of the world’s poorest countries and give a billion people a new start’ and remindered the leaders the needs of the poor.
However, there are debates on some modern social issues between religion and non-religion. While National Lottery is being enjoyed by majority of people Christians are against it as it is considered to be a form of gambling which encourages people to love money and to be greed. This is an example of different attitude towards money between religion and non-religion.
CONCLUSION
In this project, we have leant a lot of values on moral issues and attitudes towards wealth and poverty. Firstly, the concepts or definition of both right and wrong were introduced and some moral issues were discussed in Chapter one. Secondly, in Chapter two, we have leant how different religions teach their followers about right and wrong. Two religions, Christianity and Islam, were introduced as examples. In this chapter, we also discussed the ‘rules’ and ‘forgiveness’ regarding to different religions. Thirdly, in chapter three, we explored the values on responsibility for our environment in different religions and discussed a link and controversy on religious teaching about natural environmental protection and air pollution they made. Finally, in chapter four, the issues of wealth and poverty were explored and the attitudes towards to it were examined in different religions and non-religions. In addition, the modern social issues related to wealth and poverty have been discussed.
By this study, we realize that the values are really important in our daily life. It demands us to have a right attitude to any moral issues and social issues. I agree with the attitude of religious people towards wealth and poverty though I do not belong to any religious group. Money or wealth displays the value only when it is used by someone who really needs it. Thus, it is very important to help the poor and distribute the world wealth around all over the world. ‘In the Bible it is written that God gave us is for us all. I often think how beautiful it would be if everyone understood this.’
APPENDIX
Appendix 1: The Ten Commandments
I) Thou shalt have no other God’s before me.
***
II) Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
***
III) Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
***
IV) Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord Thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work…
***
V) Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days many be long upon the land, which the lord thy God Giveth Thee.
***
VI) Thou shalt not kill.
***
VII) Thou shalt not commit adultery.
***
VIII) Thou shalt not steal.
***
IX) Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
***
X) Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour’s.
Appendix 2: My own Ten Commandments
I) Treat other people fairly
***
II) Do not take other people’s properties
***
III) Do not fight
***
IV) Do not bully others
***
V) Do not be jealous of other’s possession
***
VI) Thou shalt not KILL other people
***
VII) Do not be racist
***
VIII) Do not commit robbery
***
IX) Trust nobody (most of the times) except of god
***
X) Be good to people that been good to you.
INDEX
A
Allah 6, 8
B
Bible 5, 6
C
Christianity 5, 6, 8
E
Eastenders 4
Evil 17
G
God 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 14, 17
Good 10
I
Islam 5, 6, 8, 17
J
Jealousy 3, 4
Jesus Christ 5
M
Morality 3
Moses 6
Muslim 6
P
Poverty 2, 10
R
Right 2, 3, 5
Rules 6
S
September 11………………………...3
T
Ten Commandments 2, 5, 6, 14, 15, 17
terrorist 3
W
Wealth 2, 10
Wrong 2, 3, 5
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Lee, T., God at the Speed of Light. A.R.E. Press, ISBN: 0876044399, Publication Year: 2002.
Mayer A.E., Islam and Human Rights: Tradition and Politics. Westview Press, ISBN: 0813335043 Publication Year: 1999.
Morgan, K.W., Islam: the Straight Path: Islam Interpreted by Muslims. Ronald Press Co. ISBN: 0813335043, Publication Year: 1958.
Nicholson W., Wind Singer. Egmont Children’s Books Limited, Publication Year: 2000
Smith H., The World's Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions. Harper San Francisco, ISBN: 0062508113 Publication Year: 1992.
Stackhouse J.G., Can God Be Trusted? Faith and the Challenge of Evil. Oxford University Press, ISBN: 0195117271, Publication Year: 1998.
Swinburne R., Providence and the Problem of Evil. Publisher: Oxford University. ISBN: 0198237987 Publication Year: 1998.
Toropov B., The Complete Idiot's Guide(R) to World Religions (2nd Edition). Alpha Books, ISBN: 0028642082, Publication Year: 2001.
Wright C., Thinking Through Religion. Oxford University Press. ISBN: 0199172579, Publication Year: 1998.
Video
Icon Home Entertainment, Miracle Makers, Theatrical Release Date: 23 April, 2000, Video Release Date: 30 October, 2000, Run Time: 90 minutes, ASIN: B00004WCM9
Paramount Home Entertainment (UK), Ten Commandments, Video Release Date: 3 April, 1995, Run Time: 220 minutes, ASIN: B00004CK54,
In this case, wicked is as bad, but not as interesting.
Nicholson, William. Wind Singer Egmont Children’s Books Limited, 2000.
The Modern meaning of one of the rule in the Ten Commandment, see Appendix 1.
A rule in my own Ten Commandments, see Appendix 2.
A large group of religious congregations united under a common faith and name and organized under a single administrative and legal hierarchy.
The Book of Islam Laws – Written by Angel Gabriel
Caption from page 187 in the book Thinking Through Religions
