Abraham’s Role in Morality

Introduction

According to Graham, morality is the process of determining wrong and right actions (140). The author also reveals that society use morality as a principle that measures what is bad and good. There is a war of culture around the globe on the importance of religion in determining elements of morality (MacIntyre 1). Most scholars ask if morality needs obedience to God.

Obedience to God and Morality

People from the field religion have answered that God is so significant when talking about morality. Other scholars most specifically, humanists disagree and argue that God is no necessary about the debate on ethical behaviors in the society. According Schneewind, Christians, Buddhists and other religions agree that if a person disobeys Gods commandments, the individual is immoral. The author reveals that killing is immoral in most of the societies in the world and according to the beliefs of most religions, murder is a sign of disobedience to God. Hence, the author notes that morality and obedience to God go and in hand. The divine command theory supports the author’s arguments by revealing that those who follow the commandments of God are the moral ones and those who do not obey the commands are immoral. The debate about the connection obedience to God and morality has proven hard for scholars to understand. Thus, the essay herein discusses Abraham’s relationship with God so that readers can understand what obedience is and relate it to morality.

Abraham in the Book of Genesis

The book of Genesis 22 has described Abraham in variety of ways including Abraham as Prometheus, as obedient, moral and a man of faith. The Prometheus Abraham was highlighted when God told him to leave is home and travel to a land that he will be shown (Schneewind 34). At that time there were many gods worshiped from birds, ocean, Sun, mountains to animals. The actions of Abraham in Genesis 22 has mad him a small god among the Christians and Judaists in that they pray to God through Abraham. Even when God called Moses, He identified Himself as God of Abraham. The role Prometheus Abraham played in Genesis 22 brought about three religions in the world today which contradict including Christianity, Islam, and Judaism (Noddings).

Abraham’s Faith and Obedience

The second type of Abraham is that of great faith. Abraham’s faith was seen when he agreed to go to unknown land believing that God will sort him out. Second, Abraham’s faith made him believe that God will make him father of nations though he had no children. Obedience was seen in Abraham when be agreed to sacrifice his only son. Abraham also obey God on several occasions for example, he agreed live his home and circumcised his all household as commanded. Abraham was moral and his morality was as a result of obedience to God. From the story of Genesis 22, God is the one to determine right or wrong for those who believe in supreme beings for example, story of Sodom and Gomorrah.

The Importance of Obedience in Morality

Morality is conducting oneself in an ethical manner and for a man to be moral he must be obedient to the rules that have been set by the society. Noddings suggests that people should emulate the Abraham’s obedience and obey the rules that have been set in the society for them to be moral. The author argues that most of the religions in the world have rules that ensure peace in the society. Thus, if believers obey those rules they will be moral and upright. The author reveals that, before a man decides to obey any rules he must evaluate and see if the rules can cause any harm to fellow humans. Those that believe in supreme beings should emulate Abraham and those that do not should go with philosophers’ view of morality. Philosophers argue that moral actions are the ones that benefit the greater society not an individual (Graham 147). Looking at Hitler, he was obedient but not moral. Hitler did not like the Jews and his actions did not benefit the majority of the world, instead a lot of lives were lost. Abraham’s obedience made him moral before God and also made him Prometheus. Unlike the followers of Hitler and other world dictators, Abraham believed and obeyed a supreme being. Thus the world today is better if it emulates the kind of obedience Abraham had because obedience in God and society laws equals morality.

Conclusion

In conclusion, God is a significant part in the concept of morality. Almost all the religions in the world believing in Supreme Being condemn killing, stealing, fornication, rape and defiling young children. The same things that have been condemned by religions are also condemned by the society and the laws of many lands. Most of the constitutions in the world are based on the religion present at particular location. The same way God punishes people who have gone against the law, the constitutions also have consequences for breaking the laws. God is important in morality because even nations believe that religions leaders are the most moral people on earth and can be called to help solve morality problems.

Works Cited

Graham, Jesse,. “Beyond beliefs: Religions bind individuals into moral communities.”Personality and Social Psychology Review 14.1 (2017): 140-150.

MacIntyre, Alasdair. A short history of ethics: a history of moral philosophy from the Homeric age to the 20th century. Routledge, 2015.

Noddings, Newton. Caring: A relational approach to ethics and moral education. Univ of California Press. 2013

Schneewind, Joseph. The invention of autonomy: A history of modern moral philosophy. Cambridge University Press. 2013