By Harold W. Anderson, Ph.D., M.A., M.Div., MFT When I was growing up, I was told that I must “believe.” In our house, belief was equated with faith so believing in the right things made a person faithful. What were we supposed to believe? It was the standard affair for anyone growing up in middleContinue reading “Asking “Why?””
Tag Archives: Morality
Faith, Judgment, and Edification
As many of you are aware, I have been teaching philosophy and ethics for the past years, and a written response I received from one of my ethics students was as interesting as it was informative. The student wrote: “Ethics is based upon knowing the good, knowing the good inside each one of us. WhatContinue reading “Faith, Judgment, and Edification”
Minimal Decency as an Obligation for Our Leaders
By Harold W. Anderson, Ph.D., M.A., M.Div. I have never lived in a country ruled by a dictator. Basically, in a dictatorship, anyone who does not agree with the dictator is considered an enemy and dealt with as such. Since policy under a dictator is at the whim of the dictator, no one really knowsContinue reading “Minimal Decency as an Obligation for Our Leaders”
A Lie Is a Lie…Right?
By Harold W. Anderson, Ph.D., M.A., M.Div. Emmanuel Kant believed that a lie was a lie and lying was and is always wrong. Do you agree? Most of my ethic students weren’t quite sure. Surely, they thought, a little lie—sometimes called “a white lie”—won’t hurt anything, would it? In fact, contrary to Kant, they wouldContinue reading “A Lie Is a Lie…Right?”
“We the People”
Harold W. Anderson, Ph.D., LMFT, M.Div. In a recent article, I read about a South Carolina school board that was considering banning a book taught in an AP Language course last February (The Daily Beast, “Ta-Nehisi Coats Crashes School Board…”). Apparently, Ta-Nehisi Coates book, Between the World and Me—an essay originally written for his son whoContinue reading ““We the People””
Goodness, not Self-Interest, Is Our Truth
Sermon based on I Peter 1:17-22, written by Harold W. Anderson, Ph.D. on April 18, 1999 Let me begin this morning by telling you several different scenarios. I want you to think about each one and answer to yourself what you think you would do in these different circumstances. Here’s the first scenario: You areContinue reading “Goodness, not Self-Interest, Is Our Truth”
Moral Equivalency and Stopping at Stop Signs
In my ethics class, I would ask, “Do you suppose that driving would be safe if no one stopped at stop signs?” They would quickly answer that driving under such circumstances would not be safe. I agreed. However, living in a world where “X = not-X” is to live in such a world. Meaning becomesContinue reading “Moral Equivalency and Stopping at Stop Signs”