Theological Beliefs and Ethical Principles

Research Paper
Subject:
Philosophy
Topic:
confusion between theological beliefs and ethical principles in a commonly-held religious belief system
Theological Beliefs and Ethical Principles
Provide an example of a possible confusion between theological beliefs and ethical principles in a commonly-held religious belief system. Are there practices within this faith that might be critiqued as unethical? How should we apply the fundamentals of ethical reasoning in this case? Your response should be at least two pages in length and should be typed using 12-point Times New Roman font. You are required to use at least your textbook and one scholarly article from any database within the CSU Online Library as source material for your response. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations in APA format. The title and reference page do not count towards the two-page minimum. Text Book Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2012). Critical thinking: Tools for taking charge of your learning and your life (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Theological Beliefs and Ethical Principles
It is only skilled thinkers that differentiate between ethics and other domains or versions of thinking like theological thinking through ethical reasoning. Some the theological beliefs are not ethically correct and ethical reasoning lays the foundations and fundamental ways to argue out whether the practice is ethical or not. According Paul and Elder (2009), religious ideologies are mostly taken, by mistake, to be intrinsically ethical in nature. If it were the case, then it will simply apply that practices in any given religious system would essentially be ethical. Theological beliefs must be superseded by the ethical reasoning, otherwise, torture and murder resulting from religious conviction and zeal that are historically evidenced would still continue to date. Skill thinkers must thus push for controls and regulations so that members of religion do not over step their bounds and begin infringing people’s freedom and rights.
Some of the theological beliefs confused with ethical principles as stated by Paul and Elder (2009) are “members of majority religious groups often enforce their beliefs on minorities, members of religious groups behave as if the theological beliefs are self-evidently true and they scorn those who hold other views, and religious group members do forget to recognize that is a theological concept but not an ethical one.” According to Chartrand et al. (2011), commitments to certain set of religious beliefs may deter them from realizing that the ethical concepts are prioritized in comparison whenever a conflict arises between them. The former are universal while the latter are inherently controversial. People with reasoning prioritize allegiance to ethical principles regardless whether the principles are or not acknowledged by certain religious groups. Theological beliefs supplement the ethical concepts and principles but cannot overrule them.
For instance, if any religious groups believe that the firstborn male in every family must be sacrificed but failed to excise the countervailing ethical principles and judgement, then each individual in the religious group would be convinced that it is ethically obligated to kill their first born males. However, it is true without doubt that their theological beliefs would result in unethical behavior and undermine their ability for appreciating the cruel nature of their behavior. The right thing to do in the face of ethical reasoning would be to resist and rebel such course of actions that are regarded by others to be obligatory. Ethical principles and concepts should be used to judge the religious or theological beliefs (Chartrand et al., 2011).
Paul and Elder (2009), states that society would be deemed unethical whenever it agrees with among its religious practices in any form of torture, slavery, racism, assaults, deceit, frauds, persecution, or intimidation. It is important to recall that atrocities have been committed in the course of religious warfare. There is no theological belief that justifies the violation of primary human rights. In other words, religious beliefs can never override the ethical concepts. The ethical principles must come in to take care of the oppressive and intolerant theological beliefs and practices.
In conclusion, there are no theological beliefs that can prove beyond any reasonable doubt the violation of primary human rights. Therefore, the fundamentals of ethical reasoning must be employed to stop such bureaucratic practices and the atrocities that may result from the practices.

References
Chartrand, J., Stewart E., Russ, H., Heather I., John, M., Paul, R., Elder, L., & Gunther, R. (2011). Critical Thinking Strategies for Success (Collection). FT Press.
Paul, R., & Elder, L. (2009). Critical Thinking: Ethical Reasoning and Fairminded Thinking, Part II. Journal of Developmental Education, 33(2), 42-43.