Philosophy

            Priest and ministers make up panels that handle moral issues. People feel that they have the upper hand in knowledge when it comes to morality. Most hospitals have an ethics committee, which include healthcare professionals, lawyers, and religious representatives. The reason why priest and ministers are thought of in this way is not because they are wiser; it is because they have better and deeper reasoning with morality than most people. The Divine Command Theory is what most religious people look at as to tell what is right and wrong. If God commands it then it is considered morally right, and if God forbids something then it is morally wrong. Four hundred years before Jesus was born Plato wrote Euthyphro, and in this passage he wrote that right could be seen as what the gods command. Socrates basically says back that if it is right because the gods command it, or do they command it because it is right. There are two things that all of this might mean. First, we might say "right conduct is right because God commands it." This statement can lead to trouble. God could have given us different commands easily. He could have told us to be liars. Then lying would be right, and telling the truth would be wrong. So therefore, it is God's command that makes telling the truth right. Secondly, we can say that God commands us to do certain things because they are right. God sees that killing is wrong, so he commands us not to kill. This leads to the question of why does God command it. This question leads to argument, but most religious people believe that they just must accept the right and wrong of God, because it is the only morals they have to go by. .
             The Theory of Natural Law is what the history of Christian thought goes toward. This has three main parts. First, this theory rests upon a certain view of what the world is like. It says that the world is in rational order with purposes and values. It has the saying of everything in life has its own purpose.