Reviewer no. 1: Christian Morality
Meaning and Purpose of Life
1. A commonly accepted explanation for the origin of life is the organic evolution 2. Three specific questions to understand why you exist? What is it really all about? = Where did we come from?, Why Are We Here?, and Where are we Going? 3. organic evolution- the hypothesis that man evolved from "lower animals," which in turn came from simpler life forms, all the way back to the first microscopic life, which sprang accidentally from non-living matter. 4. Science has repeatedly demonstrated that life comes only from life. This is a law of science called "Law of Biogenesis." 5. The opposite of the law of Biogenesis would be spontaneous generation - life beginning spontaneously from non-living matter. 6. Science has repeatedly proved that the law of biogenesis cannot happen. So every living thing must come from a previous living thing. 7. Evolution cannot explain the origin of the very first form of life. 8. Genesis Story provides that All kinds of life were originally created by God in six days. God is an eternal, living, all-wise, all-powerful Creator. 9. Hedonism - a philosophy emphasized by modern entertainment. It is the beer-commercial mentality: "You only go around once, so reach for all the gusto you can. 10. The real purpose of life according to the teaching of the bible is to "Fear God.” and keep His commands". 11. The most important work that God intends for us to accomplish in life is to love God and our fellowman. Desire of Man for Happiness 1. The Beatitudes respond to the natural desire for happiness. This desire is of Divine origin. 2. St. Augustine - He said “How is it, then, that I seek you, Lord? Since in seeking you, my God, I seek a happy life, let me seek you so that my soul may live, for my body draws life from my soul and my soul draws life from you.” 3. St. Thomas Aquinas – He said “God alone satisfies.” 4. The desire for God is written in the human heart because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. 5. Heaven - is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness. The Body of Adam was made by an immediate operation of God 1. body - is the material counterpart of the soul, which is understood to have been directly created by God. 2. Adam - is synonymous for the first man, as described in the first chapters of Genesis and commonly recognized in Judaic and Christian tradition as the father of the human race. 3. The expression "was made" means effective causality which is not creation. 4. By an immediate operation of God we mean there was no natural co-cause which God used in the production of Adam's body. 5. To generate really means to give life to a being like to oneself. 6. God created the first man, but He did not generate him. 7. Adam was derived from the animal. But the animal would not be Adam's father in any sense. 8. The generative function of the animal is intrinsically ordained to produce only an inferior organism of the same species which would be transformed by divine action into man. 9. The difference between generation and derivation cannot be ascertained by mere analysis or scientific experimentation. 10. An instrumental cause does not act only with the forces proper to its essence but with a power received from the principal cause. 11. Adam's soul (along with his body) does not naturally evolved from a brute animal. 12. Pope Pius XII – said "Only from a man can another man descend, whom he can call father and progenitor" 13. The Magisterium of the Church does not forbid that the theory of evolution be investigated and discussed by experts. 14. The first narrative of human creation in the first chapter of Genesis clearly excludes materialistic evolution. 15. The true generation of man from an animal is now ruled out. Character Formation 1. Catechism of the Catholic Church - teaches, '"The role of parents in education is of such importance that it is almost impossible to provide an adequate substitute. - The right and the duty of parents to educate their children [is] primordial and inalienable... 2. Pius XI's - encyclical On the Christian Education of Youth, "consists essentially in preparing man for what he must be and for what he must do here below, in order to attain the sublime end for which he was created. It is clear that there can be no true education which is not wholly directed to man's last end … 3. Moral or character formation is essential than intellectual formation. 4. Aristotle - calls the character, or habitual formation of a man, his 'second nature.' 5. Aristotle calls the character, or habitual formation of a man, his 'second nature.' 6. Character formation cannot be separated from the person. 7. Plato – said that a person who is a slave to the inclinations of his passions is a slave. Such a person is not ultimately happy. 8. The virtue of obedience opens the door to the other virtues, and to the acquisition of prudence. 9. Prudence - is the acquired ability—that is, the habit—of discovering and judging what is right in any given set of circumstances. 10. Character matures somewhere between the ages of 24 and 30, so children complete the process of character formation on their own. 11. Virtue is a habit, and habit is gained and perfected through repeated action. 12. Virtues to Emphasize from Four to Seven Years: • obedience • sincerity • order 13. Virtues to Emphasize from Eight to Twelve Years • fortitude • perseverance • industry • patience • responsibility • justice • generosity 14. Virtues to Emphasize from Thirteen to Fifteen Years • modesty • moderation • simplicity • sociability • friendship • respect • patriotism 15. Virtues to Emphasize from Sixteen to Eighteen Years • prudence • flexibility • understanding • loyalty • audacity • humility • optimism Virtue According to the Catechism 1. A virtue is a habitual and firm disposition to do the good. 2. Emotions or feelings or passions are not always morally good. 3. Emotions are good if they contribute to a good action. 4. Kinds of Virtue – Theological and Cardinal (Moral) 5. Theological Virtues - dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity. They have God for their origin, their motive, and their object - God known by faith, God hoped in and loved for his own sake. 6. Kinds of Theological Virtues – Faith, hope, and charity 7. It is not enough that the disciple of Christ must only keep the faith and live on it. 8. It is not enough that the disciple of Christ must only keep the faith and live on it. He must also profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it: "All however must be prepared to confess Christ before men and to follow him along the way of the Cross, amidst the persecutions which the Church never lacks." ( LG 42; cf. DH 14). 9. Mary - is the model and example of faith. Her virginity is the sign of her faith "unadulterated by any doubt", and of her undivided gift of herself to God's will. 10. Hope - is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit. " 11. The virtue of Hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man. 12. Abraham – is the model of hope. His hope was blessed abundantly by the promises of God fulfilled in Isaac, and who was purified by the test of the sacrifice. "Hoping against hope, he believed, and thus became the father of many nations." (Rom 4:18.) 13. Charity - is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God. 14. Jesus - makes charity the new commandment. 15. Charity is superior to all the virtues. It is the first of the theological virtues. 16. Four Cardinal virtues – prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance a. Prudence - is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it. b. Justice - is the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor. c. Fortitude - is the moral virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good. It strengthens the resolve to resist temptations and to overcome obstacles in the moral life. - is the virtue that enables us to conquer fear, even fear of death, and to face trials and persecutions d. Temperance - is the moral virtue that moderates the attraction of pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods. Morality of Human Acts 1. Freedom makes man a moral subject. 2. Sources of Morality – object, end/intention, circumstance 3. End/Intention - is an element essential to the moral evaluation of an action. 4. It is not proper to consider only the intention in determining the morality of the human acts. 5. Circumstances - contribute to increasing or diminishing the moral goodness or evil of human acts. 6. A morally good act requires the goodness of the object, of the end, and of the circumstances together. 6. An evil action cannot be justified by reference to a good intention. DO GOOD AND AVOID EVIL 1. The Catechism of the Catholic Church provides that one may never do evil so that good may result from it. 2. The purpose of increasing in knowledge of good and evil is to call good what God calls good and to call evil what God calls evil. 3. In order to be able to choose to be good and do good one must learn to recognize evil. 4. The first thing that was not “good” during the creation of man according to the book of Genesis is that man was alone and isolated. 5. Sin - is the state of disobedience and the individual act of falling short of perfection, literally “missing the mark.” 6. Teleology – refers to everything that has an end or purpose. Morality involves working out what our purpose as humans is, and acting in a way that fulfils it. 7. Deontology – morality is about doing your duty, an obligation to follow rules or do right actions. 8. The efficient cause is what gets things done, while the final cause is the purpose of a thing. 9. St. Thomas Aquinas - said that acting accordance with reason was the same thing as acting in the way a Christian would act. 10. Morality is not based on following commands from the Bible but on following rules that can be discovered through reason. The End Does Not Justify the Means 1. Is it excusable or morally permissible to lie and cheat in order to get a promotion? What principle is violated? = NO. Just because you were given the promotion does not excuse the fact that you lied a cheated. The End Does Not Justify the Means 2. To justify abortion, euthanasia, and suicide is to argue that the end justifies disobedience to God's word. 3. Happiness and love they do not justify disobeying God's teaching about marriage and sexual purity. 4. No one can do evil that good may come - we commonly know this as “the end does not justify the means.” 5. Direct abortion - abortion willed as an end or as a means, always constitutes a grave moral disorder, since it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being. 6. Direct killing is not similar to allowing a person to die. Principle of Double Effect 1. In the principle of double effect, the evil effect is not intended. 2. In the principle of double effect, the intended effect, good or evil, is called “direct”. 3. The Principle of Double Effect states that an action, good in itself, which has two effects--an intended good effect, and a foreseen, but not intended evil effect—is moral provided there is a just order between the intended good and the permitted evil. 4. In the principle of double effect, the good must be willed and evil effect merely tolerated. 5. In the principle of double effect, the good effect must not come about as a result of evil effect, but must come directly from the action itself. 6. We do not permit directly destroying a subordinate good for the sake of the greater, but we can allow the sacrifice, as in martyrdom or totality. 7. In the principle of double effect, the good effect must be at least equivalent in importance to evil effect. 8. If the good effect could be obtained in an equally expeditious and effective way, without the unintended evil effect, this must be done. 9. A Merely Permitted Evil Effect is called the indirect voluntary effect that is, although foreseen as an evil effect resulting from the action, it is no way an object of the act of the will. Moral Responsibility 1. No person can be held wholly responsible for human actions performed without perfect knowledge and full freedom. 2. The greater the knowledge and freedom, the greater the voluntariness and moral responsibility involved. 3. Ignorance – lack of the knowledge which man/woman should have of his/her moral duties. 4. Invincible Ignorance – cannot be overcome despite ordinary diligence and reasonable efforts. 5. An act which proceeds from invincible ignorance is not voluntary; it is not a human act and consequently completely excuses man/woman from wrongdoing. 6. 3 elements or components of human acts: Human act must be a knowing and deliberate act; must be free; and must be a voluntary act 7. When a person does not know what he/she is doing or when he/she is no longer free to act, the responsibility for his/her actions is no longer attributed to him/her. 8. Vincible Ignorance – can be overcome or removed by ordinary efforts. 9. Vincible ignorance does not destroy, but it does lessen the voluntariness and responsibility of an act. 10. The degree of responsibility or culpability of Vincible Ignorance depends on three circumstances: Amount of effort put forth to get proper information; Importance of the matter; Obligation of the agent to acquire proper knowledge on the matter. 11. Affected Ignorance – a person positively wants to be ignorant in order to plead innocent to a charge of guilt. 12. Affected or pretended ignorance does not excuse a person from his bad actions; on the contrary, it actually increases his responsibility. 13. Concupiscence or Passions – Strong tendencies towards the possession of something good or towards the avoidance of something evil. 14. Passions are neither good nor evil, but indifferent. They may be used by man for good or for bad purposes. 15. Antecedent passions - they arise before the will can control them by calm deliberation - they lessen freedom and diminish the responsibility of human actions because they tend to blind the judgment of the intellect and to block the freedom of the will. 16. Fear – disturbance of the mind caused by the thought of a threatening evil. 17. Fear as a disturbance of the mind lessens the voluntariness but it does not destroy it. 18. Habit – constant and easy way of doing things acquired by the repetition of the same act. Fundamental Option 1. "Fundamental option" - refers to a theory of morals according to which each person gradually develops in a basic orientation of his or her life, either for or against God. Moral Conscience 1. Conscience is a practical judgment "which makes known what man must do or not do, or which assesses an act already performed by him. 2. Conscience formulates moral obligation in the light of the natural law. 3. Conscience is not a "decision on how to act in particular cases". 4. Conscience is the proximate norm of personal morality," but its dignity consists in its capacity to disclose the truth about moral good and evil, the truth "indicated by the 'divine law', the universal and objective norm of morality". 5. The obligation, in conscience, to "form" one's conscience, i.e., "to make it the object of a continuous conversion to what is true and to what is good," and obviously "Christians have a great help for the formation of conscience in the Church and her Magisterium....the authority of the Church, when she pronounces on moral questions, in no way undermines the freedom of conscience of Christians 6. "Conscience is man's most secret core, and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths". 7. A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience. 8. Sources of Formation of moral conscience: Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, Magisterium, and Natural law Responsible Freedom 1. The power to decide what is good and what is evil does not belong to man, but to God alone. The man is certainly free, inasmuch as he can understand and accept God's commands. And he possesses an extremely far-reaching freedom, since he can eat "of every tree of the garden". But his freedom is not unlimited: it must halt before the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil", for it is called to accept the moral law given by God. In fact, human freedom finds its authentic and complete fulfilment precisely in the acceptance of that law. God, who alone is good, knows perfectly what is good for man, and by virtue of his very love proposes this good to man in the commandments. 2. There is no real conflict between human freedom of choice and the moral "law" because the moral "law," which has God as its author, is not a set of legalistic impositions but rather a set of truths meant to help human persons make good moral choices. 3. In the Veritatis Splendor, Pope John Paul II repudiates the theories which so exalt human freedom that they end up in the subjectivistic notion that men are creators of the moral order, of what is good and bad. 4. The origin of moral law is God. |
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