CCEA Religion- Synoptic Ethics

What is conscience?

our innate sense or inner feelings about right and wrong

Jenkins quote

conscience ‘both reflects on and directs behaviour’

St Paul quote

‘i seek the truth in christ… my conscience confirms it’

St Jerome quote

conscience was the means by which ‘we discern that we sin’

Augustine quote

‘the voice of God speaking to us which we must seek within ourselves’

Aquinas quote

‘conscience is the dictate of reason… he who acts against his conscience always sins’

Butler

conscience comes from god and ‘is it our duty to walk in that path’

Fletcher

agreed w/ Aquinas, conscience was the use of human reason to make moral judgments

CCC conscience

‘for man has in his heart a law inscribed by god’

Anscombe

‘a man’s conscience may tell him to do the vilest things’

Fromm

believed that conscience was an internal voice that was obeyed because of fear of punishment from external authorities

What’s a prisoner of conscience?

coined by peter beneson / ‘being imprisoned, tortured or executed because his opinions or religion are unacceptable to his government’

Mordechai Vanunu

a nuclear technician who gave information about israel’s nuclear arsenal / spent 18 years as a POC at the hands of israel’s secret service

Jesus on authority

‘give to caesar what is caesar’s and to god what is gods’

what is tolerance?

the acceptance of or non interference with the practise, values and beliefs of others when they differ from our own

Barclay

‘never was a man who had such a varied circle of friends as jesus of nazareth had’

Catholic church and charity

‘god blesses those who come to the aid of the poor’

Methodist church in equality

‘we urge all methodist people to be open to… people of different cultures’

presbyterian church on equality

‘become more socially inclusive’

2021 percentage of white people

96.6%

How many die per year due to malnutrition

14 million children under 5

For Women Scotland 2025 case

Scotland supreme court supported the biological definition of ‘woman’ in the equality act

Prisoners of conscience + celtic church

St patrick- a slave in ireland for 6 years / ‘i am nothing but an untaught refugee’ / baptised ‘many thousands’

Tolerance + the celtic church

Peregrini / Ní Mheara ‘arriving in the continent in a period of change, confusion and human misery, the irish put charity first’ / dedicated lives to pagans to evangelise and teach

Conscience + Celtic Church

Pope John XXII wanted a ‘more conscious Catholic’ post Vatican II / ‘the church should look to the future without fear… bringing her up to date where required’

Intolerance + the celtic church

missionary outreach 19th century / ‘great scramble for africa’ / livingstone wanted to bring ‘civilisation’ to africa / ‘sought to draw up a comprehensive plan for world occupation’ (stanley)

Tolerance + Celtic Church

20th century missionary outreach / irish missionaries = ‘unique empathy’ (clerkin) / liberation theology → social justice at core of gospel / Oscar Romero

Role of the state + Celtic Church

paschal controversy / state intervened in people’s personal cultural identity / ‘the beginning of the end of the celtic church’

The Equality Act NI 2006

outlawed discrimination on the grounds of age, gender, disability, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation

3 egs of state protecting citizens

COVID-19 lockdown / European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) : GFI placed a duty on UK gov to incorporate ECHR into NI law / NCSC (national cyber security centre) formed JESP unit to protect electoral security + prevent online voter fraud

3 egs of state violating citizens

Bloody Sunday (14 killed by british protesters @ peaceful march in derry, 26 unarmed civilians shot) / Guantanamo Bay / Nazi Germany - gestapo

3 prisoners of conscience

Malala Yousafzai / Nelson Mandela (imprisoned for 27 years for peaceful resistance to anti apartheid) / Nasrin Sotoudeh (iranian lawyer who defends human rights and opposes compulsory hijab law- imprisoned for ‘spreading propaganda’ multiple times)

St Paul on freedom

‘everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities’

What was the enlightenment in relation to freedom?

a shift towards individual rights

Rousseau quote

‘man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains’

George Orwell’s 1984

a powerful cautionary tale against totalitarianism/ the Party, led by Big Brother , enforced rigid ideological conformity through surveillance and propaganda

Fr Alec Reid

‘as long as we see each other as enemies, we will never see peace’

MLK

‘i have a dream’

Hitchens

‘religion is not unlike racism’

Marx

religion is the opium of the people

Pastor James McConnell

described muslim faith as ‘heathen’

Pope John Paul II

jews = ‘elder brothers’ of christianity / 1st pope to visit a mosque

Pope Francis on tolerance

‘they key for the church is to welcome, not exclude’

Gordon Wilson

‘i bear no grudge’

Rev Peter McIntyre

‘catholic mass is evil’