Is Religion Necessary for Ethics

What "God is Dead" mean?

Neitzche was a philosopher in the 19th century.  He worked on a piece called "The Madman and the Death of God".  In the Madman and the Death of God, a man runs into a market area and begins to talk about how God is dead.   And the people their start to laugh at the Madman of what he was saying people thought was crazy.  Also saying that it was us who killed God.  I think that Nietzche used this as an option  as for not a need for God in our daily busy lives.  Many years ago, people didn't have what we have now and their society was based on war shipping god.  Now those who do that are very religious, doesn't it seem like there wasting there lives in a book.  Then exploring the world of what their God created?  But today we humans because its so modern we don't pray the diseases and other stuff.  Neitzche is saying that we have not really killed God, but that instead we are closing the touch of what the significance of God was.  Now theres a bigger gap from really religious and between not that religious.  But now people have different options and just need to find a middle ground like a balance.  I think that Nietzche is just stating that what is the significance to God to those people in the market place.

Do you find Rachel's argument to be solid?  Why or why not? do you agree or disagree with it?

I do not agree with Rachel's argument, a few reasons why I do not agree is because religion means different way to many different people.  One thing we talked about in our group was that, is it right to be born into a religion?  Shouldn't people choose, Rachel's states that the ones that follow their faith with no rationalising.  Also in our group we talked about how we didn't really know about other religions that well if it wasn't for history class.  Gaby said she wished that she got to see other religions and pick one her self.  We also talked about how people who have religious view points are stubborn and don't want to say that they shouldn't decate their lives in the way people did it many years ago.  I disagree with the idea that religion morals idea would not have nay morals and ethics with out religion.   But overall as a group, Rachel's lack of ideas on the topics that she covered we do not agree with is argument.

About the reading

I think that the reading I read about religion is irrelevant to ethics is mostly accurate all though I and my group disagreed to a few parts.  Religion also could hold against moral development.  I believe that it would be a a good idea for people to grow up and have their parents explain different religions in which then choose one if they wanted to be religious.  I would have a better balance in their lives because they believe in it.  I am Jewish but I don't believe in much about the stories that were told or stuff in the Torah.  And would give kids an wrong and whats right for them.

Dalai Lama, Oscar Romero and MLK

• MLK
• Pastor, began to speak out for African Americans
• Created Southern Christian Leadership Conference giving voice to people who didn’t have any
• As a legacy in the Civil Rights Movement as he closed many gaps between the two racial groups
• Fought against majorities and fundamentals of society
• Involved politics and religion together as they were intertwined to govern society
• Helped people who didn’t have a voice and looked out for what they believed in
• Used Christianity as part of his doctrine to further implement his ideas and beliefs of what society should be
• Romero
• Liberation from Argentina government to support industrial development to give voice to the workers who supported the movement
• Had to do with relationship between Christians majorities
• Movements towards black unity and civil rights that attempted liberation succeeded and establish equal rights for races
• Wanted to revive and sustain Christianity to such advancements in the industrial world and used it as a motive cause for movements; equal rights movements would help support Christian life
• Dalai Lama
• Worked for democratic government and elected officials to start off governmental position
• Spends his life working towards liberation in Tibet and equality in the world
• Trying to have Tibet and China be allies, or have peace
• Trying to convince majority that what the government was doing was wrong and was punished for that; spoke out from a smaller voice
• Religion and religious beliefs were used as motivations to enlighten the people about their government and what they were doing under rule was wrong
• He gained a religious characteristic as he gained popularity and success from his work; regarded as religious official

What all these three man have in common is that they all tried to benefit the community. All of these men were killed or regeted. All these men were trying to show other people that their thoughts and opinions were wrong in most of the cases it was the government.

Oscar Romero and Liberation Theology Notes

Notes on the Biography

• between 1950-1960, the government in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico supported industrial development, benefiting the working class, but threw into deeper poverty
• many military dictatorships arose from populist governments
• all the nations of the West were rapidly developing while some countries suffered greatly
• there was a connection between faith and poverty in many areas
• 1975: Liberation theology text written by Gustavo Gutierrez
• the objective of liberation theology was to have Christianl groups come together to achieve “integral liberation”
• liberation theology has to do with the relationship between the Christians (mainly in Latin America) and political activism (using religion to push for social and economic equality)
• First step: present liberation theology as a fundamental theology
• in Brazil, there have been movements towards black unity, civil rights, and overall seeking liberation for the poorest of the poor
• Romero died while in  mass 10  days after giving his final sernon
• Liberation theology

• went to Latin America in the 1960’s to challenge the Catholic Church
• Chruch has to identify as a help  to the poor
• Paulo Freire his of the Catholic hierarchy with the differences of rich and poor
• In 1968 Latin American Episocpal conference of the Liberation of theology
• Church involvent in all humans rights
• 1975: Liberation theology text written by Gustavo Gutierrez

Notes on Primary Source
Last Sermon
-Romero is the Archbishop of El Salvador
-he feels the world is forgetting about religion and bypassing the laws of God
-text is trying to make us aware of this
-he wants to revive Christianity
-his audience is those who push away religion
-today, laws of God seemed to be ignored, based on societal values today
-religion seems to be secondary to morals of society
-believes citizens are living in a struggle

-Preaches about Christianty

-Sheds light on social, political, and economical situation of the people
-the mission of Christianity:
-carry on the name of Christianity
-sustain it
-you can take part in other popular groups
-including government
-but you must not forget Christianity
-Romero describes many deaths in El Salvador
-he says the military is murdering their own kind of
-and the law of God says, “Thou shalt not kill”
-no one is to go against a law decreed by God-Romero is afraid that world is moving away from religion, and towards something new

Inquisitions and witch crafts compared

The inquisition and witch craft are not good they kill people who dont fit in.  People with higher ranking titles make mostly woman feel guilty.  Mainly woman were convicted of witchcraft in europe.   We all know now that witch's arent real, so they werent even guilty but they tortured and punished them anyway.  Most feminist would make us believe that all woman who were persecuted and killed but I do understand that inquisition is much broader, for killing all who believed differently.  If you were not a strong religious Christian it wasnt a good time to live around there.  Inquisitions and witch-crafts are all just an attempt to spread Christianity, the Christan's didnt want any body else not being Christan's.  This reminds me of the Holocaust, the Nazis had a huge attempt to kill every Jew alive.  All though they did not kill allot the Jews, they tortured and punished them for their religious beliefs and killed 6 million Jews.  Although the inquisitions and the witch crafts did not punish every one they did effect people who didnt believe in their religious thoughts.  The Inquisition and witch-craft was just a say of showing the agent of power and changed those who thought they were doing the thing that was right.  Witch craft had been declared by the Pope named John XXII around the early 13th century.  The people in power specifically singled out people that werent in the beliefs as theirs and showed the "agents of power" thought out the middle ages.

Missionaries

Motives: The motives of Missionaries was to go around and spread the word of their religion and try to convert people to this religion. They wanted to get as many people to convert as they could using a non-violent system of spreading the word (except Islam).
Christianity: Believed that if people were not Christian, then they would go to hell so they thought that they were helping everyone.
Islam: They pretty much forced people to convert and they wanted more followers for political reasons.
Buddhist: Just want the world to be peaceful and for everyone to accept everyone. They want diversity and this is more of a polytheistic notion.

Methods: The methods of Missionaries was going to different places, such as Africa, Asia and America to help spread the word of their religion. The government also played a role in the missionary’s work to get people to convert. Even though they were not always violent, they tried to get people to think that the religion they are promoting is the only religion that god will approve of.

Differences: Buddhist missionaries promote the diversity of different people; a polytheistic ideal. They just wanted peace between all people. The Christian and Islam missionaries wanted people to convert for reasons that had nothing to do with actual religion. They wanted people to convert because of political reasons.

5 Rules

1)aggressive and forceful
2)Convert or die
3)Take advantage of your power
4)Dont limit your boundaries
5)No men left behind

Crusades

During class a few days ago we talked about the Crusades.  The Pope at the time was named Urban, would feed them all their information because the only people that were literate were the Popes.  Imagine only trusting one person that gave the followers their only way of finding out what God wanted them to do.  During the Crusades the Pope told his followers that Muslims were just killing ramdm people for no good reason at all and making woman become prostitutes.  Whether or not that information was true, the Christains didnt second guess any one because they do not have the Internet or TV feeding them information.  So they had to talk the information spoken by the Pope who had received it by God.  In which made the Muslims look like bad people.  But this does not happen now because of the Internet, if one friends says something that isn't true you dont need to trust them, because of other friends.  Back then they had no way of knowing if the Pope was lieing, they had to listen from the words from the mouth because they didnt have other sources nor was accessable to them.  In class we talked about how the Pope remained us all to Hitler and Osama Bin Laden.  Hitler persuaded his followers to do the things that they did for him and Osama Bin Laden had his followers believe him as if he was their God.  They both were really good at persuading the believers in doing what they thought was right. In our reading what makes it that Christians in the earlier times of that religion makes it seems to be disconnected and restrained by other religions.  Also that the Christian people were motivated to declare a Crusade (a holy war) on Muslims which were neighbors to them who at the time owned the Holy lands.  The Pope Urban one of the leaders of the Christian religion during that time period was the believers only way to hear the messages from God.  The Pope had to convince the followers be apart of the war.  Through the Pope he said that God told him that, everyone that fought in the war would have major benefits.  Which included going straight to heaven, in which heaven is a major part of the Christan's religion.  And also promised that it would wipe away all the bad sins in their life time.  In class we also talked about how Osama bin Laden remained us of Pope Urban.  They are similar because Pope Urban was the  "direct line to God" and Osama bin Laden was kind of like that too, but not the direct line from God.  And that the people that followed Osama bin Laden did not have access to the Internet and TV.  But they are also not similar because Osama bin Laden was never a prominent religious figure.  

Britiain connected to Sikhism, Islam and Hinduism

Sikhism
In 1839, when the leader of the Sikh state, named Ranjit Singh, there was leadership instability. Around five years later, the British Empire defeated the Sikh, and took over as much of the Sikh territory as possible.  The Sikhs tried to fight back in 1849 but they were defeated again.  Then after that the Sikhs admitted the defeat to the British but they then both realized that both of them had so much in common and started to get along.  Sikhs started serving in the British Army.  The Sikhs were on the same side as the British.  But British still had some control of the Sikhs temerity.  But in 1919 their good relationships didn't hold, because of the Amritar massacre.  The British Geneal, E.H. Dyer told his troops to shoot 10,000 people.  The troops ended up killing 400 and wound 1000 people.  But Britain didn't feel that same way and got rid of him.  In 1997 Queen Elizabeth II put down a wreath of where the massacre took place showing the Sikhs know that the British supported them.
Islam

Islam and Britain have had many interactions in history.  Around the Crusades, Britain and some Islamic countries formed good friends.  Queen Elizabeth I asked the Ottoman Empire for some help against the Spanish Armada.  Slowly after that, British men started to Convert into Islam religion around the 16th century and left their families behind.  The first British man to convert into Islam was a man named John Nelson.  In 1649, the first English version of the Qur'an came out, by Alexander Ross.  In 18th and 19th century Islam was becoming more popular in Britain, mostly in upper classes.  Trade between these two countries started and immigration started to follow further expanding this into the late 18 century.  Muslims mostly Yemen, came in boats to port cities of Liverpool, Cardiff, South Shields, Hull, and London.  Around that same time there was the first mosque in Britain in Cardiff in 1860.  

Hinduism
Through the time of 1957 to 1947 Hinduism and Britain came into connection.  There was a battle led by Robert Clives (now known as the Battle of Plassey) which was around the same time as the end of the Mughul Empire.  In the beginning, the British didnt get in the way of Hinduism's practices, but shortly after the British came to the shore and wanted the western part of the population.  Around that same time the partition of India to become independent took place in 1947 to present time now  This became a problem with Hindus as was brought up that there was a lot of violence that included in 1992 Hindus were terrified by the demolishing of the Babri mosque in Ayodhva, which was built over where Rama's birth was.  The tensions were caused by negative feelings to covert Hindus to different religions which became the Hindutva movement.  

Muhammad Notes from Movie/ Ottoman Empire

• Muhammad was born in 500 AD
• He was from Mecca
• Both his parents died by the time he was age six, and his uncle raised him
• Alot of stories were told in Muhammad's tribe
• Muhammad and other tribes of territiory and water
• Since the desert is dry water is really precisious
• Muhammad was a merchant
• At age 25 he saw the woman and she purposed to get married
• Muhammad was a trustful man
• Mahammad was called a poet
• His fathers man was Abd Allah, he belonged to the tribe called Fihr or also known as Quarish
• To support himself he shepherded sheep
• When he was 25 he was employed by a rich widow named Khadija
• His wife was like a mentor for him
• Muhammad was a trader in the Iberian Peninsula
• In a cave Muhammad had a denfining experience and angle came and visited him and made him recite what he was saying

Ottoman Empire

 

The Ottoman Empire was one of the largest and longest empires ever. Ottoman Empire lasted between 1301-1922. This empire was sustained by Muslims, with Islamic society and religion. The height of the Ottoman Empire was under Suleiman the Magnificent, which was the golden age and was between 1566 to 1574. The decline of the empire was of the defeat of Battle of Lepanto in 1571 and also losing almost the whole navy and kept on decline without the next few centuries. The central control of the empire weakend and lost the public option. And fully finished by the First World War and the Balkan War and totally finished by the 3rd of March 1924. The Ottoman Empire was successful due to the power of a single person. One single family ruled it for around seven centuries

Islam and the Spread

The rise of Islam was around 632 to 700 , which was also when Hijrah was started which is when the Islamic calender begins.   Around the 7th Century in Arabia it was mostly polytheistic.  the Islamic state expanded very rapidly shortly after the death of Muhammad, through the successes of converting new believers to Islam and also from military conquests.  The expansion of the country.  Muhammad had great success by establishing the new faith, but Muhammad died in 632.  Shortly after that Abu Barkr, tried to put an end to Paganism.  Bedouins are travelers that lived in the dessert, around the Arabian Peninsula.  But also around those ideas there was a lot of Jewish and Christain people.  Prophet Muhammad was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia in 570. Muslims always believed that Islam was a religion but slowly got more humane by a few prophets over time. Islam was fully a faith during the 7th century, because of Muhammad. Muhammad was a spiritual man, and while he was alive he spent a lot of time on Mount Hira, meditating. He once was meditating on a mountain around 610 in a cave and had a visit by an angel named Jibreel who wanted Muhammad to recite what we were doing. While Muhammad was reciting, he said “Allah”, which became the word for God. Later in Muhammad’s life, he became the messenger of Allah. He accepted the faith and become a prophet of Allah. Muhammad led his community until he died in 632 CE.Muhammad begin the new religion called Islam and a "calling from God."  Muhammad left Medina and then came back to Mecca. slam spread through conquests in the Middle East. The conquests started to inspire the religion, especially in politics. Islam benefited from the military through out of Arabia.  But most of the conquests where not for religious war, but it did help the religion. In Qur’an a lot of pages supported the military actions against non-Muslims.   The majority of the people were Muslim. But after Muhammad’s death, Muhammad had given the people religious force and then got reinforced for the military conquests. Some tribes said that their loyalty was due to Muhammad.  Islams most popular was under the Umayads empire.   And the Prophet did not leave clear understandings that should lead the community. Their are many written from thing period from the early Muslim victories but much of the information seems to be unreliable and also written in present things to the victories to their God.