I do not believe that morality should be relative as what one person finds immoral may
not be immoral to another person. Some example of this would be gay marriage or abortion as
there are some individuals that do not see these activities as immoral, but there are others that do
believe these to be immoral. There are some things that seem to be morals that are more relative,
such as not harming a child, but there are plenty of individuals that do harm children. Ethics and
morality can be used to improve decision making by clearing thinking before acting on
something. Understanding the ramifications of a decision before making it can help a person to
make the best decision possible rather than acting on something in the heat of the moment. For
instance, a parent that is upset with their child getting suspended for fighting should think before
making any kind of decision. Some parents may yell or even physically hurt the child which
would be very unethical and immoral, but by taking the time to calm down they may be able to
get the bottom of what happened and help their child.
I do believe that there are behaviors that are considered universally wrong, also known as
“mala in se”. Some examples of this would be murder, theft and rape. These are considered
crimes across the world, even if in some areas they are not always dealt with fairly by the justice
system in place. For instance, rape is hard to deal with in Middle Eastern countries as the
woman that was assaulted may be treated with scorn by her family because of what happened to
her to make her a victim. However, these crimes are all culturally viewed as wrong. Then, there
are those crimes that are wrong because they are prohibited rather than being considered
universally wrong, also known as “mala prohibita”. According to Lippman (2009), “This
includes offenses ranging from tax evasion to carrying a concealed weapon, leaving the scene of
an accident, and being drunk and disorderly in public” (p. 5). These are more crimes because
they are against the law rather than being seen as morally wrong.
References
Lippman, M. R. (2009). Contemporary criminal law: concepts, cases, and controversies (2nd
ed.). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.
I do believe that there would be some people that would still lead a moral life if they were
to find the ring from Plato’s story “The Ring of Gyges”. I believe that if a person was moral
before getting the ring and lead a blameless life without it they would not change the way that
they are after getting the ring. I believe that a person that had immoral thoughts would start to do
immoral acts if they were able to be invisible as the fear of being caught would no longer be in
the back of their mind. I think that this applies to the criminal justice profession as being in law
enforcement may not give the person invisibility, but it does allow them to do things that are
against the law. For instance, they are able to speed and go through red lights when responding
to a call. A person that was moral before entering a criminal justice profession is going to
probably stay virtuous while someone that entertained immoral thoughts may be more likely to
abuse their position.
I believe that an atheistic society can be civilized and moral. There are plenty of
individuals out there that claim to be religious that commit crimes, act in an “unchristian”
manner, or are immoral. A person that is atheistic is not automatically going to be uncivilized
and immoral just because they do not subscribe to a particular religion. Actually, this is even
part of the Bible in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Individuals that were supposed to be
righteous walked right past the man that had been robbed, but the religious outcast was the one
that helped him. Many terrorist groups are religious based, but commit grave acts of violence
against their fellow men, cause others to kill themselves as suicide bombers. There is even a
website dedicated to helping married people cheat and it is probably not likely that every single
member of this site is not religious.