welcome to the final unit of this course in this unit it's kind of a I guess a potpourri of different topics and really the effort of this unit is to talk about what's going on in religion today how religion kind of plays out in day to day life and so there's several topics that we'll talk about in this unit like religion and ethics the issue of religious fundamentalism major trends that experts who look at those kinds of things say are going on as far as religion in the world today we'll have a few guests in this unit talk about things like particularly religious life in the Ozarks and what's unique about that so there's several we'll have a lecture talk about more like new religious movements some of those ones that people are curious about and so we'll give that a little bit of attention in this unit so that so there's just sort of a I guess a smattering of topics in this last unit that I think I was just more like religion functioning in the world today our religion on today's soil is kind of the idea these first few lectures I want to talk to you particularly about religion and ethics and you know I always ask students in my classes so you know talk to me about the connections you see between religion and ethics and really probably the answer that students always give is well every religion has an ethical code when you can't escape that and that's true if you find a religion that has no ethical code that doesn't have any standards for behavior or conduct you're probably finding a religious group that's not going to last very long all the religions all the enduring religions present ethical codes some more stringent than others some more elaborate than others but certainly ethical codes are a vital part of every religious system the other thing though that I try to lead students through thinking about is how ethics fits with the definition of religion that we talked about back in the first unit of this course that religion is human transformation in response to perceived Ultima see and so if you think about that idea of human transformation human transformation is the idea of change and change is something that happens as a result of choices that we make and so we change the way we make decisions we change priorities we change the way we treat people and that transformation that people make in response to what they perceive is ultimate what they perceive as worthy of transforming in response to is really about ethics making choices about my conduct about my behavior and even about the motivation of those so one way that in response to that type of definition of religion that I also think about ethics is that in many ways ethics is the way or is is one's ultimate concern lived out that whatever is important to me I tend to make choices in line with that I mean if if you want to figure out what's really most important to me in life watch the choices I make and ask me why I make them and over time you'll probably see a thread and that thread is probably and an indication of what's most important to me in life and this family seemed to come in often is the justification for what I do or what I don't do well family maybe what I perceive is ultimate is is a religious system or religious teaching what I talked about as why I do what I do well that thread is probably an indication that that's what's ultimate to me it is money and some sort of gaining of accomplishment money is that what I seem to use as a guide in making decisions in life well then that's what I perceive as ultimate is affecting the decision that I make and so our ethics our choices are really what we perceive as ultimate and our living out of that our response to that or our transformation in response to what we perceive as ultimate so it's in this first section I just want to talk more broadly about ethics some definitions for ethics a few approaches to ethical decision-making and then in the next session we'll talk more about ethical motivations the word ethics comes from a Greek word ethos and what ëthis refers to is not so much the specific things that we do but rather it refers to one's disposition or one's character and so if you've talked about my ethos as far as the Greek sense of the word you would be talking about what's my general disposition what's my general character in life that's my FS now if you think about that my disposition or my character has come about because of the choices that I've made I mean at any moment in my life what people think of me are you and how people perceive me or you as far as our character or disposition is as a result of the choices that we've made up to this point to quote the wise Forest Gump you know he said stupid is as stupid does and so if people think I'm stupid I've probably done stupid things that probably made stupid choices that lead people to that conclusion about me if people think I'm trustworthy and reliable then that's because I've probably made choices that reflect trustworthiness and reliability and so my disposition my character my ephes is a result of the choices that I've made sometimes in conversation with people you know someone will say I wish people didn't think I was so self-centered well the answer is to make choices that are not so self-centered ly motivated but people at any perceive us the way in a in a way that we've reflected by the choices we've made our ethos is as a result of the choices we've made so in thinking about what ethics means this word that we've derived from the word ethos one definition is that it's the explicit reflection of moral beliefs and practices it's the explicit reflection of moral beliefs and practices and let me go ahead and bring up another definition and because I want to talk about these two in conjunction to one another another definition that you find for ethics is that it's the study of standards of conduct and moral judgment it's the study of standards of conduct and moral judgment I think what's interesting about those two definitions is that that what they point to is really two aspects of ethics the first one talks about moral beliefs and the second definition talks about moral judgment more internal things that part of ethics is what we believe part of ethics is judgments that we make but but then they each also bring up another point that first definition talks about practice or moral practice and that second definition talks about standards of conduct practice and conduct outward things that we do and so ethics doesn't just involve what we do but it involves why we do what we do it's our beliefs and it's our judgments the why we do what we do but it's also then our practice and our conduct what we in fact do so ethics involves both an internal component our motivations our intentions and it involves an external component what we actually do now you could put several people in the same situation and they might all do the same thing so the conduct the practice is the same but the likelihood that they all did for the same reason is slim and that begins to shape a different ethical approach for each person as far as why they did what they did at the time of the taping of this course we are in the process of electing a president and we've just recently had some primaries well basically Democrats split 50/50 voting for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton the standards of conduct were just too well some went ahead and voted for Edwards at this point even though he's out of the race but most voted for those two the conduct the practice was the same but if you ask everybody why they did what they did you would not get the same answers on why people voted for Obama or why the people voted for Clinton all that packaged together not just of what we do but why we do it is our ethical approach to life it's those two parts another definition of ethics that is not quite as simple as those two but I think gives us a little a little more fodder to work with and thinking about what ethics involves is a definition developed by man named Paul layman and layman said that ethics is a disciplined account of what it takes to make and to keep human life human it's a disciplined account of what it takes to make and to keep human life human now that's one of those definitions that even probably at my first reading I'm not sure much really clicked in because in many ways he brings a lot into this definition and again in my live classes I put that definition up in front of the class and then I ask them ok look at that definition look at words he uses phrases he uses what all would layman say is involved in our ethics or in our ethical decision-making and so they'll point out things like disciplined and the idea and what so we'll talk about so what is that and what does that imply what does that intimated and so they'll talk about well that it's it's it's a choice that when we're disciplined in something where we try to be consistent in it that when we're disciplined in something it's something that we've learned I mean that's the meaning of the word discipline is to teach and so it's something that we learn it's something we try to be consistent in it's about some sort of a practice but then we talk about a discipline account and the idea that an account gives the idea that we're responsible I mean if I had to give an account for something then I'm responsible for something and so maybe he's intimating that ethics involves responsibility then we talk about that that phrase what it takes and usually students talk about well how we develop as ethical people is about effort it takes something and then we talk about that phrase to make and to keep human life human that according to laymen that's the goal of any decision what do I do in this situation that makes and keeps human life human or what do I do in this situation that is the most humane thing what do I do in this situation that treats people as humans and not as anything less and so we talk you know I'll ask so how do you see how that plays out in some situations in life and we'll talk about things like the way prisoners of war are treated I mean the kind of the guiding phrase that's a goal and how prisoners of war should be treated is with humane treatment keeping human life human and so as there have been issues in the past about how prisoners of war have been treated it was because they weren't treated as humans they were treated as a dog or as some other sort of object of derision but not a person and so it was not humane treatment so it was not ethical but then we also talked about even in our interpersonal interactions how that plays out that if I treat students as anything other than a human being they don't feel like I'm very ethical as a teacher and if I as a teacher I'm treated as something other than a human then I don't feel like the treatment to me is very ethical or in relationships when we say to people you're treating me like dirt you're treating me like a dog you're treating me like some object we're not feeling like we're being treated as a human and that our humanity is being maintained and so the goal of an ethical decision according to laymen is to make and to keep human life human to make choices that preserve the humaneness of those affected by the decision well when we talk about ethics in the field of ethics one that one thing that you encounter is that there are two approaches to ethical decision-making and particularly two approaches to how much control we really have over the ethical choices that we make and those two approaches are called determinism and freewill and those are like polar opposites when you take them to their extremes probably most of us or some most of us probably lean one way or the other as far as how we see the control that we and others have over the choices that we may but most of us are priced somewhere kind of in between leaning to where one or the other but you know we'll talk about the poles of those the term pure determinism pure free will to show the distinction between them determinism as you might conclude by the name of it is that ultimately the individual is not responsible for the choices that are made even though we might think we are determinism says we really are not ultimately we're not responsible ultimately the decisions that we made are determined by things other than just our choice that when we make a choice several factors have affected that that one of the ways that that reads that you'll see here on the screen is that every event is necessitated by antecedent events and conditions and so the actions are the consequences of these prior events or in other words that our actions are predetermined by heredity environment conditioning etc that everything that we do we are more reacting to the environment that we're in to our heredity to the way we've been conditioned to the way we've been raised and that our that our choices really are not free and so we're not free agents and the choices that we make that we may think we're doing something for some reason but we're really being motivated by these more underlying predetermined motivators in what we do and so it brings people to say things like I couldn't help it that's that's the way I was raised I couldn't help it that's that's how I learned to deal with conflict and my family and we see in courts of law all the time where people's personal responsibility is subjugated to other factors that cause them to do what they did besides just that they picked up a gun and shot it that there were other things that caused them to make that choice that allows people to be alleviated a personal responsible the idea determinism that that we really don't have that much choice over what we do and and there have been people from other fields philosophers theorists from other fields that what they had to say about human behavior reinforces this idea of determinism and these are people that you've heard of even one that we've talked about earlier in this course but one of those is Darwin according to Darwinian theory about human behavior what motivates the choices that we make well survival and so whatever we do is about survival it's about being naturally selected as worthy of continuing on and so based on a Darwinian theory we often justify behaviors it's what I had to do to survive in my job it's what I had to do to survive in this relationship it's what I had to do to survive in this campaign it's and so we justify behaviors not because we just go I just chose to do this because it's what I wanted to do but rather I did this because survival motivated me to do this there were two sons back in the late 80s early 90s that killed their parents and the argument in defense of them in court there was no doubt that they had done that but the argument and defense of them is that they had been abused they've been treated badly and so it was survival instinct that caused them to do what they did which allowed alleviation of some responsibility of what they did a second deterministic the thinker it was Pavlov the Russian behaviorist and I'm sure you've run across him in psychology classes but he's the guy with the salivating dogs that basically he got dogs to salivate in response to a bell ringing so they had at this conditioned response and they couldn't help it bell rings salivated because they had earlier had food introduced to them at the time of the bell ringing but even without the food introduced that Bell brought about the salivation of these dogs it was a conditioned response they couldn't help it you know it wasn't like somebody rang a bell on these dogs thought I'm gonna salivate right now they just did that it's a conditioned response and that that experiment has been applied to human behavior ever since I mean that's how can we know about Pavlov that our behavior is conditioned and so there are things that we do not because we sit back and go I think I'm gonna hit this person because I'm mad at them but rather maybe my upbringing conditioned me to deal with conflict in this way and so that's what I do that what we do we are conditioned to do we don't necessarily choose to do it even though we might think we do a third thinker that contributed to the sight of determinism was Freud much of Freudian theory about human behavior is deterministically oriented of course the one of the underlying ideas of Freud's theory is what was called the oedipal complex and the idea that every young boy desires his mother and so feels in competition with his dad basically and it's not like most little boys and young men think through the fact that they're living out this edible complex but Freud and other Freudian psychoanalytic thinkers since then over and over illustrate ways that men in some way maybe marry women that are like their mother or their antagonist ik toward men that are like their father and that that's rooted in this oedipal complex that they don't even realize is motivating them there was a scene in the sitcom of the late 90s early 21st century of Everybody Loves Raymond and there was one episode of that where if you're familiar with that sitcom you watch reruns you know Raymond and his mother or they're kind of tight I mean there's definitely some enabling that goes on between the two there and it really the whole this one whole episode revolved around the idea that it was the oedipal complex that had caused Raymond to marry the woman he did because he saw her is a lot like his mother well it's not like he went out and thought I'm gonna marry someone like my mom but that's the deterministic idea is that we think we're making free choices but the reality is were not heredity conditioning environment all these things contribute to us making the choices that we do in ways that we don't even realize and so we really are not free agents and the choices that we make we might think we're exercising free will but determinism says we're really not other things caused us to do what we do not just free will on the other in that poll is this idea though of free will and free will says we are free agents we are fully responsible for the choices that we make certainly we have been affected by our conditioning by our heredity by our environment but ultimately we choose and we are responsible for those choices Robert Kane and the significance of free will said free will is the power of agents people to be the ultimate creators and sustainers of their own ends and purposes that we are the creators and sustainers of what happens to us what the way our lives go determinism would not say that determinism would say well yeah they did kill somebody but there's a lot of reasons why that happened and they should be relieved of some of the responsibility for what they did free will would say no we ultimately create and sustain create and maintain the direction of our lives by the choices that we make and we're responsible for that Carl janae and George Pharrell are two people that wrote extensively about this idea of freewill freewill a few things that Carl janae said in his book called on action was that a free will is that there are two or more alternatives open to me at a given moment and whichever I do is ultimately up to me whatever I do I multiply can't blame it on my mom I can't blame it on my dad I can't blame it on the environment I was in or the people I was hanging out with I have these two or more choices and whatever I do is ultimately up to me that the carljan a says in relation to free will that nothing stands in the way of my ability to choose I can't blame anything else for what I do except my free choice George Ferrell wrote a book called the ethics of decision and he says the he's kind of creates sets up this process about how free will works in our lives he says first one thing he says is that we make hundreds of decisions daily I mean at this point I don't know if it's late or early in the day when you're watching this but you've probably made several decisions at this point even if even if you just gotten out of bed and crawl to your computer to watch this to start your day off on a wonderful note or something you've made several choices already some having greater impact than others but life is a series of you know hundreds of decisions daily so life is a series of unavoidable decisions to quit making decisions is to quit living I don't know if in your family or in you know the network of people you know if you've been around an older person and for for some older people they reach a point where it's decided sometimes accurately and probably sometimes not was decided by their family or by their caretakers that they can't make decisions anymore in their best interest and so that's taken away from them and again sometimes that is in their best interest to take that away from them sometimes it's not but as their ability to make decisions is taken away from them they also kind of begin to wither away there's a dignity that's lost when you can't make choices about your own life because life equals decisions I mean I think about one of my grandmother's who had a severe stroke and live for some years after that but she was not able to take care of herself in many ways but there were she still wanted to make a lot of decisions and there was a line to walk between given or the dignity of making decisions and not another one of my grandmother's who in her later years her mind was good but it probably wasn't always the safest for her to be at home by herself and yet she wanted to make some choices about that and so my father and his siblings had to make choices about how do we allow the dignity of some decision-making so she doesn't just give up on life and yet at the same time not put her and some sort of situation is dangerous to her that life equals decisions and we have the ability to take decisions taken away from us then we kind of have a sense that life's over it's not life anymore so life equals unavoidable decisions a third thing he says is there's no way to escape that life is decisions and synote sometimes we've all reached points in our lives were like I don't want to make another decision well that's to quit living is the reality one other thing that Freud that excuse me that Pharrell said that's probably the most famous statement that he made and actually even back in the 80s a rock band Rush built a song around this line he said there's only one choice we cannot make we cannot choose not to choose and he goes on to say that even in not choosing we've still made a choice the example I use in with students is you've got to go to a 9:30 class and so your alarm goes off at 9:00 o'clock and so you hit the snooze you go I don't know whether I want to go to class today or not and you know nine oh nine or nine eleven hit the snooze again I can't make it my mind whether to go to class or not I don't want it I can't choose you know nine twenty two you hit the snooze again nine forty-five if you're still laying in bed and you're the classes at 9:30 even if you've been laying there the whole time saying I don't want to choose I don't know what to do you've made a choice you're not in class you've made a choice that affects your behavior and what's going to happen so even in not choosing according to Pharrell we still don't escape the reality that we have chosen life is choice and free will says we have control over those choices that we make so there's two kind of polar ends of that and again religious perspective also has a lot of effect on that and what motivates what we do and how much control we really have over that Buddhism would have a lot to say about how our desires cause us to do the things that we do and we may not even realize how much that's the case and so the effort is to overcome that desire so we do have free will to make the choices that we make religions like the monotheistic religion strongly emphasized personal responsibility and the choices that we make taking a much more freewill perspective that we choose obedience or disobedience that we choose ethical conduct in relation to other people or we don't but that we are fully responsible for that and there's consequences for those choices that we make within those religions so there's two approaches free will and determinism what we want to talk about the next lecture is then what motivates the decisions that we make