So What? Reflection

For the past four weeks, we have looked at the importance of free will and moral-decision making in the context of Biblical texts, literature, and film. As we are approaching the conclusion of the course, I have started to think about how free will and determinism coupled with moral-decision making plays a role in my life, and how it has helped me to grow as an individual. Overall, I believe that my belief in compatibilism has granted me a sense of peace, whereas my decision-making process has greatly affected the way that I weigh good and bad decisions.
When considering free will and determinism, I think that my belief in compatibilism has had a great deal of influence in my life. I find a great deal of comfort in knowing that although I have the freedom to make everyday decisions, I’m not just walking through life without a higher power guiding me. I have always believed that God has an overall plan for my life, and that even if I make a string of bad decisions, I can view those decisions as lessons God intended for me to learn along the way. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon re-affirmed my feelings when Trisha constantly took turns that landed her deeper into the woods, yet still managed to make it out alive with a fresh appreciation for her family. The story of Jonah 1:2, also demonstrates the power of God’s plan in our daily lives. When God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh, Jonah makes the conscious decision to instead go to Tarshish to run from God, however, with Jonah’s overall plan in mind, God sends the raging ocean storms and a giant fish to try to help Jonah realize that he cannot run away from God’s will.
My process of moral-decision making has also greatly impacted the decisions I have made and why I made them. From a young age, I initially deemed things moral or immoral by simply following a code of virtue ethics that my parents instilled in me. My parents taught me the virtues that they exhibited, and thus expected my brother and I to follow. Besides my parents, educational and religious institutions also re-enforced the values of honesty, hard work, and compassion that were ingrained into me at a young age.  I believe that while virtue ethics helped shape the fundamental parts of my character, I tend to use a consequentialist approach in decision-making today. When making an important decision, I try to weigh the positive and negative outcomes, and make the decision that benefits both me and those involved the most. Overall, if a decision I make seems to fall in line with my virtues as well as benefit more than harm those involved, I deem it to be the right, moral choice. To me personally, the combination of truly believing that He is in charge of my overall plan (regardless of incorrect or immoral decisions) coupled with my best efforts to live a moral life, give me a sense of security and peace every single day.

So What?

         During the past few weeks of class we have learned about moral decision-making.  There are many different ways to go about making a decision. Decisions are made based on wanting to make the right choice for yourself or others (consequentialist ethics), making the decision based on rules (duty based ethics) or you can make a decision based on what the decision would show about your character (virtue ethics).

            I did not know anything about the three main categories of decision-making until this class, but after learning about the different ways that people make their daily decisions lets me understand what the person might have been thinking prior to the act. Knowing the decision-making categories does not mean that I agree with every decision that people make, but I can generally figure out why they chose to do what they did.

            I am going to write my blog cultural reflection and student honesty or cheating. Everyone here at Belmont knows that cheating is against the rules for this university as I am sure is the case for every university in the country. Prior to taking every class each student is required to sign a piece of paper on the syllabus that states that cheating is not allowed in any form.

            Even though cheating is against the rules here at Belmont I am sure that there are many students who choose to take the risk and cheat anyways, because it is easier. Other than those few students who choose to cheat and find the easy way out of work I believe the majority of students choose to do their own assignments. By choosing to do your own school work you do not have to worry about getting caught and earning yourself a zero on the given assignment or even worse being kicked out of Belmont. Since the consequence could lead to such a severe punishment most college students do not cheat and make the smart decision by using the duty-based ethics category.

            Another cultural reflection topic that I am going to talk about is romantic relationships. A romantic relationship is the perfect topic for when virtue ethics decision-making should be used. Virtue ethics is acting like a virtuous person. A virtuous person acts with kindness, honesty, forgiveness, and many more. The three of the traits that I listed are very important in making a relationship last and for that reason making a decision in a romantic relationship would best be made using virtue ethics, well at least if you want the relationship to last for a long period of time.

Jekyll and Hyde

Humans possessing both positive and negative qualities is one of the most intriguing topics we have discussed yet.  Since I was raised in the church I have always been taught that I must do the right thing and that sin is wrong. I can relate strongly to how Dr. Jekyll desired to hide (Hyde lol) his poor choices.  Our society today is all about appearances.  Making one wrong decision can change your image and ruin how everyone around you perceives you.  I think that many of the choices my generation makes, are not based on morals, but how they are depicted in society.  However, just because we only display the positive stuff, doesn’t meant the negative doesn’t exist.  Dr. Jekyll attempted to split his personalities in order to achieve a balance, but I believe that it is impossible to live fully in both the positive and the negative.  God teaches us that in order to live a fulfilled life you must forgo sin and follow his word.  In the Bible he discusses that if you are lukewarm you will be spat out of his mouth.  As portrayed in the book, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde were both unhappy because neither could fully live the life they wanted.  I think when it comes to moral decision making, one must pick one side and stick with it.  If you try to play both sides then you will always be disappointed.  This became truly real to me when I came to college.  I didn’t chose to fully follow God and lived in sin.  However, I didn’t want to abandon God so I attempted to play both sides.  The uncertainty in my life made me sick because I felt like no matter what I was doing I wasn’t making the right choice.  There is a scene in the TV show “Avatar the Last Airbender”  in which the son of the bad guy realizes he has been fighting for the wrong side.  He becomes extremely ill as he struggles to determine what side he actually agrees with.  This scene, as childish as it is, became a huge metaphor for my life senior year.  I think it directly relates to Jekyll and Hyde because there are two opposing forces fighting for one life.  The biggest takeaway from this story is that no matter who writes the rules that a human decides to follow, they cannot follow contradictory rules or they will be torn apart.  It is crucial to understand that all humans struggle with good and bad desires in their lives.  Eventually both of these nature’s will come to light.  However, only one nature can win the fight and it is up to the choices we make and the moral code we follow to determine which nature we believe to be the best. 

If you want to watch the "Avatar" episode its season 2 episode 18.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

           The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was a great book, that I truly enjoyed reading. In the novel, Dr. Jekyll is wealthy doctor; he creates a potion of a mixture of different drugs that brings out the evil in him. When he takes the drug he becomes a different person who is known as Mr. Hyde. Mr. Hyde is Dr. Jekyll however; he does not look or act in the same way. After taking the drug numerous times Mr. Hyde’s becomes more and more out of control to the point where he actually kills people. Dr. Jekyll becomes aware of the horrible acts he is doing when he becomes Hyde and wants to put an end to the transformation. His attempt at trying to stop the transformation fails, as he cannot stop turning into Hyde even when he does not take the drug.

            The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has a lot of examples of moral decision- making, but I will narrow the story and talk about one moral decision-making example that occurs in the story. Dr. Jekyll is a Christian man and realizes that his potion that turns him into Mr. Hyde is making him do things that are against his religious beliefs. Dr. Jekyll realizes that the only option to stop Mr. Hyde from making bad decisions is to kill Mr. Hyde. Killing Mr. Hyde would mean that he would have to commit suicide, but committing suicide is a sin. This decision-making would fall under the category of virtue ethics because, Dr. Jekyll was Christian man and if he was too commit suicide then he would commit a major sin. At the same time if he does not commit suicide to prevent his transformation to Hyde would mean he could kill more people, which is another major sin. 

            At the end of the story Dr. Jekyll is found dead in his laboratory, but we do not know how he died. Did he have to make the decision to commit suicide to make sure Mr. Hyde would never commit a murder again or did Mr. Hyde somehow kill off Dr. Jekyll? The ending of the book was very confusing for that reason, but maybe the ending was supposed to make the reader wonder what decision he made. I think that both decisions would be very hard to make, but the correct way to solve the problem would be for him to commit suicide, because Dr. Jekyll lost control of his transformations to Mr. Hyde and if he kept on changing into the beast of Mr. Hyde then he would continue to commit many more sins even though he was not trying.  

            

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde was my favorite assigned reading of the semester, because it not only kept me entertained through the suspense and well-crafted story line, but it also made me think beyond the framework of the plot. The notion of human duality is fascinating to me, as it allows us to explore the personality that society sees, and also the personality that we may keep hidden behind closed doors. Throughout the text, I found examples of our Classic Categories of moral decision-making as seen in the Victorian time period and Jekyll’s tortured decision to keep his monster at bay.
As discussed in the literary criticisms in the back of the book, Robert Louis Stevenson lived during the Victorian era. The Victorian Era was marked by an age of extreme piousness. Men and women of this time were overly concerned with upholding perfect moral standards, and thus followed social rules and codes of conduct that they believed helped them attain that perfection. I believe that virtue ethics is perfectly displayed in this time period, due to the characters acting in ways that they believe demonstrated the virtues that were important to their society. For example, when Mr. Utterson begins to grow in curiosity and seeks to open the clause of Dr. Jekyll’s will that states “only open in the case of my disappearance,” Mr. Utterson shuts the will inside his safe to ensure that he upholds the virtue of honesty.
When examining Dr. Jekyll’s great moral struggle between giving into his primitive urge to transform into Mr. Hyde, and remaining his morally upstanding self, we see a classic example of consequentialist ethics. Every time Dr. Jekyll mixes up his transformative potion, he must weight the potential consequences of Mr. Hyde being released, or Dr. Jekyll being contained and repressed far too long. Even when Mr. Hyde begins to blend over into Dr. Jekyll’s original form, Dr. Jekyll decides that the potential consequence of Mr. Hyde being allowed unlimited control of his body causes him to decide that the best course of action is to sequester himself to avoid the murderous rampage that Mr. Hyde is capable of.
Besides the obvious connection to moral decision-making, what really intrigued me about this story was its connection to sexuality. During the course of the novel, there is not a single woman that plays a role of any importance. In addition, there are several subtle references to sexual activity in the night when Hyde is released onto the streets. In my opinion, I believe that Hyde could have been portrayed as a homosexual man who was trying to fight his urges due to the social expectations of the Victorian time period. Could Stevenson have been projecting his struggles as a Victorian male into the character of Hyde, or am I reading too far into a literary criticism?

Biblical Readings Question #2

          The biblical reading for this week was very intriguing to me. Each one of the different stories all the way from the two different chapters of exodus, Mathew, and Romans shared different types of moral decision-making. Even though all four of the readings were interesting to me there was one that was the most clear to me in showing the decision though process that was being used.

            The passage covering Romans 7:14-25 was my favorite. Romans, which was written by Paul is about a “confession that he could not always control his desires and that he did not always understand his own actions.” He is saying that he wants to do the right thing but sin in living within him and does not always act in the right way. He says that he wants to do the right thing and the only way he can stray away from sin is through Jesus Christ. “I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin”.  This chapter is truly great to read, because Paul who was an apostle struggled with sin just as much as everyone else does and admits to making the wrong decisions in life and believes the only way to make the right decisions is by living through Jesus Christ. 

            Another passage that stuck out to me was Exodus 20: 1-17. During this chapter the commandments were stated and shows duty-based ethics, because each of the Ten Commandments is being told by an external source of authority. The Ten Commandments are laws that are supposed to be followed and are very straight forward for example “You shall not murder”. This verse is as straightforward as it can be, just as the rest of them. By following the Ten Commandments there is no way that anyone can justify murdering, because the laws are straight forward saying to not do something no matter what the reason.

            Overall the readings for this week were easy to understand. Each of the different passages was showing different ways that moral decisions were being made in the bible. I never really thought that there were different ways that decisions were made in the bible, but rather that there were specific right or wrongs like that of Exodus 20: 1-17 and duty-based ethics. After reading the different chapters I quickly understood that it was not necessarily that simple. Even an apostle such as Paul had a tough time making the right decisions, which let me understand that it is not easy to make the right decisions even if you have the right intentions.

Moral Decision-Making in the Bible

I found the assigned passages very interesting this week, due to the fact that they all contained varying messages on the issue of moral decision-making, even though they were all found in the Bible. In my opinion, I have often heard people describe the Bible in a “black and white” manner where there was a clear right and wrong answer for every situation possible. However, the application of these four passages addresses virtue ethics, duty-based ethics, consequentialism, and the overall struggle of morality.
Romans 7:14-25 was perhaps my favorite passage, because I found it to be brutally honest and inspiring. Paul, who was an apostle, is openly admitting that even though he knows what the right thing to do is based on the teachings of Jesus, he often does not end up doing the right thing. He says, “ So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.” Paul is admitting that not only does he struggle with doing the right thing, but he struggles with the known presence of sin in his life. Paul’s struggle to do the right thing when it is not what he wants to do is a perfect example of the struggle that anyone goes through when faced with a difficult choice.
Even though Paul appears to be distraught in this particular passage, there is an inherent hope that he conveys in the final sentence.  Paul states, “Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?  Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Paul recognizes that even though he may not do the right thing in the eyes of God, his sins are already forgiven through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Overall, I feel that this passage is a perfect representation of the struggle and salvation of every Christian living today. Based on the teachings of the 10 Commandments and other parables, we all have a pretty good idea of what Jesus viewed as inherently right and wrong. However, just because Jesus taught that lust is just as bad as adultery, and that we must love our enemy, it does not mean that every Christian (or any of them) follows these teachings 100% of the time. I believe that this passage is the overall basis for moral decision making in the way that we must try to model our behavior as closely after Jesus as we can, but to also remember that our sins have already been forgiven by a God who understands that human beings will never be perfect. The only part of these passages that I struggle with, is the knowledge that while some of Jesus’ teachings are still widely abided by (i.e. murder, adultery, etc.), there are teachings that only applied to the time period in which He was living that we widely ignore. Where do we draw the line and who decides what teachings still apply?

Source Code

           The movie Source Code was very interesting to me and throughout the movie there were many tough decisions that needed to be made. With every decision that was made I instantly thought about which classic category was being used and what decision I would have made if I were in the movie.

            The biggest decision that had to be made in the whole movie was for Commander Goodwin to disobey her boss Dr. Rutledge and keep Captain Stevens alive so he can save more lives or keep her promise and terminate Captain Steven’s life after his last mission.

            Dr. Rutledge believed that if they kept Captain Stevens alive then he could go on more missions and save thousands if not millions of more lives. This decision-making by him would be considered Utilitarianism decision-making, which is a sub category of consequential ethics. Utilitarianism  “argues that an act is morally right if the total good of an action is more favorable than unfavorable to everyone involved”. I believe Dr. Rutledge was in the right with this decision-making, because thousands of lives are far more important than one life. At the same time I do not feel like there is a right or wrong way of making this type of decision, because Commander Goodwin made a promise to Captain Stevens and knew that he was going through a lot of pain during each eight-minute mission and felt like it was her duty to fulfill Captain Stevens last request made and that was to terminate his life after his last mission.     

            Making someone else suffer to save more lives is the decision that I would make, but other people have different thoughts about this type of decision and I do not think they are wrong for their decisions because we are all different. This thought process is easy for me to say, because I am not the one suffering, but I feel like I would be strong enough to be able to know that I am making a sacrifice to save many more lives.

            Overall the decision in the movie to either terminate Captain Steven’s life or to keep him alive and have the potential of saving millions more was very difficult for Commander Goodwin as is should be. Making a decision that involves someone living or not must be very hard to do, however I feel like the lives of thousands of people are far more important than a single persons life, no matter who they are or what they have done in their lives. At the same time I do believe that it is not my decision to choose whether or not someone should live, and that choice should be up to themselves and no one else because, no one knows what they are going through except for the person themselves.