I.  Values and Self-Determination

1.  Some factors that play a role with regard to the moral beliefs, the moral values, that one accepts:

(1) Parents, (2) Religion, (3) Community in which one is raised, (4) Society in which one lives, (5) Media, (6) Peers, (7) Schools, (8) Experiences, (9) Literature, (10) (Rational) Reflection, (11) Innate sense of right and wrong?

2.  Dramatic changes in the moral beliefs of a very large proportion of people in society:  1900 versus 2000.  Consider, for example, the differences with regard to the following:  Divorce, contraception, homosexuality, premarital sex, euthanasia, abortion.

3.  Some issues:

(1)  If one had been born in 1889 - rather than, say, in 1989 - how likely is that one would have had, in the year 1907, the moral beliefs and values that one now has in the year 2007?

(2)  If it is likely that one's values would have been significantly different, is that worrying or not?

(a)  Can one argue that there is no reason to view that as worrying since the same would be true with regard to one's beliefs in other areas?  (Consider the very different scientific beliefs that one would have had in 1900.)

(b)  What accounts for the change from 1900 to 2000 with regard to moral beliefs?  Has there been a growth in moral knowledge, just as there has been a growth in scientific knowledge?

(c)  Reasons why one might find the situation worrying:

(1)  Is moral knowledge possible?  Or are there just moral opinions?

(2)  Can one determine one's own basic beliefs and values, or is one at the mercy of external forces?

(3)  A puzzling aspect of the shift in moral beliefs in America:  How is this shift in values compatible with the fact that America is one of the most religious countries in the world?

Illustrations

1.  Consider fornication.  How do you react when you're told that someone you know - say, John, or Sue - is a fornicator?  Or when someone tells you that they are a fornicator, and proud of it?

The Concise Oxford Dictionary:  "fornication, n.  Voluntary sexual intercourse between man (occas. restricted to unmarried man) & unmarried woman (cf. adultery)."

The Concise Oxford Dictionary:  "adultery, n.  Voluntary sexual intercourse  of married person with one of the opposite sex other than his or her spouse."

The American College Dictionary:  "fornication, n.  1. voluntary sexual intercourse on the part of an unmarried person with a person of the opposite sex.  2. Bible   a. adultery.  b. idolatry.

What was Jesus's view on fornication?

2.  Consider divorce.  What is the divorce rate in America?

     What was Jesus's view on divorce?

     Who gets divorced?  Is it only, or mainly, those who are not very religious?  Answer:  The divorce rate is slightly higher for Christians than for those who aren't religious, and higher still for born-again Christians.
("Christians Are More Likely to Experience Divorce Than Are Non-Christians", December 21, 1999, http://www.barna.org/cgi-bin/PagePressRelease.asp?PressReleaseID=39)

     Is America perhaps not really deeply religious?  Could it be that we are, perhaps, mainly a nation of hypocrites who claim to be religious, but who do not really take religion seriously?

Consider:

(1)  The widespread idea that the Ten Commandments should be posted in schools, together with the reaction to the fact that a certain vice-presidential candidate thinks it important to keep all of the Ten Commandments, including:

"Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work.  But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work – you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.  For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it." (Exodus, 20:8-11)

(2)  Attitudes toward the desirability of being wealthy.

     What did Jesus say to the rich man who approached him, asking how he could be saved?  What did Jesus say about the chances of a rich man's entering the kingdom of heaven?

II.  Conflicts over Beliefs and Values in Present-Day Society

1.  There are very serious conflicts in present-day society with respect to beliefs and values.  Consider, for example, (1) abortion, (2) euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, (3) sex education in school, (4) homosexual marriage, (5) the teaching of evolution versus creationism.

2.  These conflicts play a significant role in political discussions.

3.  Is there any way of resolving such conflicts?

4.  One view:  Religion is the answer.

5.  A very different view:  Philosophy is the answer.
 

III.  The Cost of Not Being Able to Resolve Moral Issues?

1.  Society may be very badly divided, and the disagreements in question may even lead to violence.

    Consider, for example, the issues mentioned earlier:

(1) abortion

(2) euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide

(3) sex education in schools

(4) homosexual marriage

(5) the teaching of evolution versus creationism.

2.  Mistaken moral beliefs can often generate enormous unhappiness.
 

      Consider, for example:

(1) the official Catholic teaching that the use of artificial birth control is intrinsically wrong, and seriously so

(2) the view that masturbation is seriously wrong.