Religion and Ethics: Moral Decision-Making and Contemporary Issues
Moral decision-making
Know the major ethical approaches and how religious traditions use them: deontological (duty, rules, divine command), consequentialist (outcomes, utilitarianism), virtue ethics (character, flourishing, the mean), and natural law (reason and human purpose). Understand how religious ethics typically combines scripture, tradition, reason and experience as sources of moral authority, and how these can conflict.
Contemporary issues
Be prepared to analyse issues such as bioethics (abortion, euthanasia, genetic technology), justice and poverty, war and peace, environmental stewardship, sexuality and gender, and media and technology. For each, know the range of religious positions rather than a single "religious view", and the arguments used to support them.
Common traps
Do not caricature a tradition as having one position. Do not confuse descriptive claims (what traditions teach) with normative claims (what should be done). Avoid asserting your own view without argument. Use ethical terminology precisely: "consequentialist" is not a synonym for "pragmatic".
Worked example
Question: evaluate a religious response to euthanasia. Model answer: state the issue, outline the deontological (sanctity of life) and virtue-based (compassion, care) arguments, apply them to the case, and reach a reasoned conclusion. Rule of thumb: issue → ethical framework → religious sources → application → evaluation.