War on Terrorism

"Is morality dependent on religion or does it exist independently of religion?" For most people, their religion is the backbone for their morals. I didnot realize this until I had to stop and think about it. For most, religion is instilled in their minds and hearts at a very young age. Therefore, as we grow up we subconciously refer back to religion when their is a moral issue. Many people also knowingly look to religion for moral guidance.

The Divine Command Theory suggests that the only way to resolve a moral issue is to wait for God to speak to us. There are no other criteria for deciding right from wrong. If somone was to claim that they killed a person because God told them to, we have no criteria for judging whether they heard God or not.

I believe this is where law comes into play. Jesus and the people of his day had to follow laws. You cannot just go out and commit a terrorist act claiming God told you to. I believe the way of God sometimes can be strange and sometimes not understandable for people, but I just have to believe that committing terrorist acts are not the way of God.

This article about the Divine Command Theory says that acts of rape or genocide are not arbitrary but a matter of reason. This theory suggests that people look to religion for moral guidance, whether they be Buddhist, Christian, Confucianist, Islamic, or Jewish. Morris Ginsberg says that "all of the ethico-religious systems are universalist in scope."

When talking about this subject, we cannot confuse law, reason, and the Divine Command Theory. I believe God has given the "light of natural reason" to everyone. Some people just choose to ignore this, and then say God told them to commit terrorist acts, or commit any horrible crime against people. These terrorists are taking things into their own hands, and saying Allah says to do these things.

There will always be fanatics. This is the world we live in. No matter how we argue our position, there will be those who have an opposite position that they stand firmly on. This reminds me of a film I just watched, called Dirty War. It's a film about religious fanatics setting off a radiation bomb in downtown London. The London detectives caught one of the guys, and questioned him why he did this. The terrorist stated, "what divides you unites us." The purpose of these people will never stop existing, so