Utilitarianism And Salvation

Salvation describes the deliverance by God for those who believe in him. It is the saving of the soul from sin (and its consequences) through Gods will and grace. Though it takes different forms in every religion, the principle is still the same, often emphasising the necessity of both good works, repentance, and asceticism, as well as divine intervention (in this case the action being the grace of God). If assuming that Christ is the full truth, then the only way to gain access to God after death is through the salvation given by the Christian God. Jesus himself has indicated that a person must hear the word, believe it, repent of past sins, and be willing to confess faith before others, be baptized into Christ for the remission of sins, and then continue to live a faithful life throughout this physical life if we are to go to heaven.

The ethical teachings and values of utilitarianism and Christian ethics are similar in some aspects, yet however are diverse in others. Utilitarianism is a generally teleological ethical system, where the outcome is said to justify the act. The act is considered ‘good’ if it brings about the greatest good for the greatest number. Christian Ethics, however, can be quite different. Many aspects of its ethics are deontological, for example, the Decalogue and Natural Law. There are other differences and indeed some similarities which will be considered throughout this essay.

Salvation, as known by many different religions, is a sort of deliverance from the physical and spiritual aspects

Salvation is defined as the deliverance from sin and its consequences. In a Christianity sense, salvation is when a person accepts the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior, and they believe the fact that he died for the sins of Christians. The term of salvation is often referred to as being “saved”. Salvation is when one delivers not only their body in a physical to the church and God, but it is also a committee to Jesus mentally and spiritually. Getting saved can be a very pressuring and life changing decision. That is sometimes forced upon young adolescents. Ultimately it can cause one to question their spiritually sometimes even damaging their belief in Jesus. In Langston Hughes’

Utilitarianism is focused on making this life as pain-free as possible. However, the Bible tells us that there is more to our existence than just this life on earth. If all so we live is to maximize pleasure in life, we miss the bigger picture. Jesus said that he who lives only for this life will be greatly disappointed (Matthew 6:19). The apostle Paul says that the tribulations of this life, do not compare to the glory we will receive in eternity (2 Corinthians 4:17). The things of this life are temporary and transient (v.18). Our focus should be on maximizing our glory in heaven, not our life on

In Genesis, God is portrayed as the Creator of the world and of man and woman, and as a strict enforcer of justice ("Because you have done this, Curse are you above all livestock and wild animals") (Gen. 3:14), ("If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?") (Gen. 4:6). God destroys what is wicked, as is seen from the flood, but saves what is good, as is seen in the case of Noah. Following the flood, God makes a covenant with Noah, which shows another side of God's "personality" that He insists on establishing a "bond" between Himself and mankind, i.e., a religion. Several covenants will be established over time, all of them culminating in the one set by Christ, who really shows the personality of God.

in Genesis, God is speaking to Noah, " then the lord said to Noah ' Go into the ark with all your house hold, for you alone have I found righteousness before Me in this generation'" (Genesis 51).God said that Noah was righteous among all people on earth, so he saves him and his house hold by making them build a boat. After Noah builds the ark he and his house hold stay in there while the whole world floods.

Salvation means “a source or means of being saved from harm, ruin or loss.” It is also defined as “preservation or deliverance from harm, ruin or loss.” This is ironic because in “Salvation” by Langston Hughes, Hughes writes about himself as a child losing his faith. For him, salvation did the opposite of saving him from harm, ruin and loss. I think that if religion would have been explained to Langston in a way that he would understand, he could have a strong faith later in life.

(6)You should not kill an innocent (friendless but healthy) person EVEN IF by doing so (and giving his organs to several others) you could increase net happiness.

Thinking about God's teachings and looking at society today is becoming hard to see God's teachings; the only thing that is clearly seen is Mill's theory. Examples of selfish behaviors are clearly seen every where around the world, everybody is really following the principle of utility maximization; the problem is that they are only following this principle. Countries are fighting against ghosts to make more money, instead of helping poor nations on Africa and South America. If instead of spending over $160 Billion on the Iraq war, the United States government uses this money to fight against the hunger on the world it would reduce the 400 million people that are hunger today by half (www.fao.org). It is not that hard to follow God's principle; the only thing that society has to do is to think a little bit on people that don't have the same kind of opportunity. The major problem that modern society is that every single person only seek their on good, they forgot one of the major commandments given by God that states how society should behave: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (Matthew 22:39). Society is so focused only on their own good that even a recent fact that made a good part of the Catholic world very sad, the death of the pope John Paul II, was only broadcasted in such a huge scale

There are many texts which involve salvation in the Scripture. Some of the obvious texts are John 3:16, Ephesians 1:4-8, some other parts of the “Romans road”, and the list goes on. This is due to the fact that there are many different parts of texts which also add to the Salvation texts but are not directly related. Salvation is the most important concept in theology. It is the key concept which opens up the rest of the scriptures.

Utilitarianism is one of the most commonly used ethical theories from the time it was formulated by Jeremy Bentham and John Stewart Mill in the nineteenth century. In his work, Utilitarianism, Bentham “sought to dispel misconceptions that morality has nothing to do with usefulness or utility or that morality is opposed to pleasure” (MacKinnon, 2012, p. 53). To simplify the utilitarian principle, which is one of utility, one can surmise that morality is equated with the greatest amount of utility or good for the greatest number of people (MacKinnon, 2012). Also, with its orientation to the “end or goal of actions” (MacKinnon, 2012, p. 54), Utilitarianism thus, espouses the consequentialist principle, e.g., the evaluation of any human act lies not so much in the nature of the act or the drive behind the act but rather the result of the act (MacKinnon, 2012).

Would you be willing to sacrifice something that you really care about for the greater good? Utilitarianism is the theory that we should do what is best for the world as a whole, even if that means that there will be some unhappiness. It is the ethical theory that I believe I base most of my moral judgments on, but as with anything, there are flaws to this theory.

Numerous moral theories have surfaced in the past years. They have been widely debated by philosophers and social reformers. It is important to understand what these theories are because of their influential tendencies in the way people act, especially in making morally right or wrong decisions. Utilitarianism is one of these many moral theories. Upon further analysis, problems with utilitarian thoughts are revealed. It has been widely debated by many philosophers, including G.E. Moore and Immanuel Kant. Like these two philosophers, I argue that utilitarianism is inadequate because of its contradictory nature as a moral theory. It highlights the principle of utility in seeking the greatest pleasure, allowing egotistic and hedonistic actions to be considered moral.

Utilitarianism is a limiting ethical theory that fails to grasp ethically reality. “The greatest good for the greatest number” is not ethically right in every situation. Although the majority would benefit, the minority will heavily suffer. Considering the overall consequences of our actions, the good may not always outweigh the bad, but this does mean that the good will be the ethically right thing to do. One may think they are “maximizing the overall good,” but in reality, harming many.