Why Is Unqualified Absolutism Important In Accounting

Ethics can be defined as ‘Human moral conduct according to principles of what is good or right to do’. In Christianity there are certain ethical teachings, mainly The Ten Commandments, Beatitudes, and Jesus’ commandments of love. The Ten Commandments are derived from the Old Testament which defines what people must do in order to serve God faithfully and gives direction on how to live a life according to the covenant and in essence to be a good Christian person. In the New Testament the Beatitudes and Jesus’ commandments of love are found. With love being the main concept of these teachings, they and the Ten Commandments can be seen as alike as they

The Christian-based ethic system, graded absolutism, believes “there are many moral absolutes and they sometimes conflict. However, some laws are higher than others, so when there is an unavoidable conflict it is our duty to follow the higher moral law.” ("Graded Absolutism – Christian Conflict Theory", 2006) The system’s level of hierarchy is with God at the top, next is human life and at the bottom is everything else. Whereas, the non-Christian based ethic system, generalism, a believer sometimes referred to as utilitarian, “denies only universal moral laws but holds to general ones. That is, there is some objective moral laws that are binding most of the time but not necessarily all the time.” (Geisler, 2010)

The Divine Command theory of ethics is a theory that states that an act is right or wrong and good or bad based on whether or not God commands or prohibits us from doing it. This means that the only thing that makes an action morally wrong is because God says it is. There are two sides to this theory; the restricted and the unrestricted. The restricted theory basically says that an action is obligatory if and only if it is good and God commanded it; the unrestricted theory states that an act is only obligatory if it is commanded by God, it is not obligatory if it is prohibited by God and it is optional if and only if God has not commanded nor prohibited it.

Belk provides a great outline of the differing major ethical systems along with breaking down the opposing absolutism’s. In addition to this, Belk states that a belief in moral conflicts defaults one to agree with graded absolutism. As Geisler points out, each absolute moral law is traceable to one of God’s unchangeable moral attributes (Geisler, 2010, p. 108). For Christians Isaiah 40:8 (NIV) says, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” Because God’s word endures for ever, it is not changing which helps to further confirm that the moral laws God has put forth are absolute and will not change. Rodrigues describes the moral laws as those that are unchanging, based upon God’s character and apply

Accountants are held to a higher ethical standards and they must performed their duties in compliance with standards or ethical values of honesty, integrity, objectivity, due care, confidentiality, which must be fully committed to. They must put clients or public interest first before their own. They must have and ethical values and maintain those values way beyond what the society or the company’s code of ethic. It is important that accountants’ behavior or ethical values is in conformity with the

After reviewing the six major ethical systems last week, the system I identify with most, and personally subscribe to is a graded absolutism system. Although I do not completely agree with every aspect of a graded absolutism, there are areas that I concur with as a follower of Christ. For example, Geisler (2010), states, “apart from graded absolutism, it is difficult to make moral sense of the cross” (p. 114). The requirement of higher and lower moral laws exists for a believer or the act God sending his only son to die on the cross for us is irrelevant. Therefore, as a follower of Christ, this system reinforces the belief that God’s moral law is above all else, regardless of the situation. The bible teaches that we are to be obedient to the

The Divine Command Theory is a theory that morals are solely connected to religious belief, specifically God, and without religion and God, human beings have no morals. “The three largest religions in the world – Christianity, Islam, and Judaism – provide to their believer’s commandments or principles of conduct that are thought to constitute moral law, the essence of morality. For millions of adherents, the moral law is the will of God, and the will of God is the moral law.” (Doing Ethics Page 9). Individuals who believe in the Divine Command Theory argue that not following the word of God is going against God and siding with the Devil.

The author states that the idea of the universality of morals is not as complete as it seemed in the last three paragraphs, and explains it in paragraphs 21 – 22.

Overall, I favor a modified divine command based ethical system. Essentially, God is the author and founder of what is right and wrong, and each of his commands are birthed from and reflect his divine, self-sufficient essence. The Holy Scriptures tell us two critical realities of God. First, Genesis 1:1 states, “In the beginning, God […]” From this we see that God was first, preeminent, before all things; he is the foundation of all that was, is, and will be. Accordingly, this would include both what is right or “good” and what is wrong or “bad.” Second, in Exodus 3:14 God reveals a little of his identity when he delivers his “name” to Moses as, “I AM WHO I AM.” Although there is limited consensus on how one should

The ethical theory of moral absolutism has raised many arguments since Plato produced the Theory of the Forms. Philosophers have argued over it for centuries; whether it is correct, whether we should be absolutists or relativists or whether we bypass both of these theories and decide our actions based on virtuous people.

“Rules give the appearance of ensuring the objectivity we otherwise find lacking in our own individual decisions and judgements” (Hauerwas 19). As Christians, we are not to “create moral values, principles, virtues; rather they constitute a life for us to appropriate. The very idea that we choose what is valuable undermines our confidence in its worth”(Hauerwas 3). Humans are sinners. We appropriate righteousness. We take on and apply the morals, values and principals of the Kingdom of God to our lives. We do not have ethics on our own but only through Jesus Christ. We cannot depend on our own sense of what is moral and be saved (KJV Proverbs 14:12). If we depend on our own sense of what is right and wrong, we lose the reason God put Himself in human form, which is to redeem us from a morally corrupt

In the article Unspeakable Ethics, Unnatural Laws, Arthur A. Leff took an agnostic approach when determining what morality should be comprised of. He suggested that humans struggle with desiring to follow a predetermined and unchallengeable set of moral rules, while at the same time wanting the autonomy to create those rules.

Philosopher S. Jack Odell’s quote on page 5 is relevant in our current postmodern society where relativity is a major aspect of societal thinking because although a set ethical system will not solve every problem it does act as a guideline (5). In the same way, the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament did not control behavior or control actions it revealed God’s values; His ethics (NIV, Rom.8:3). Although ethics are guidelines for behavior and decision making individuals and groups have total autonomy when deciding to honor or violate the code. In my opinion, ethics in a society like ours can exist but we cannot expect a wide demonstration of obedience since we live in a fallen world. In other words, because of sin human being’s relationship

Steven Pinker through his work, The Moral Instinct, published in the New York Times, presents the argument regarding the moralist’s need to punish those who break a moral law and that it would be wrong of them not to is nearly identical to that of a religious approach as the act of sinning or breaking a commandment leading to divine tribulation. This in mind, the Bible story regarding Moses and the 10 commandments which enacts as moral laws that

Religious Legalism Laws or moral norms derived from Holly Scriptures (Bible, Qur’an), this norms are seen as “God will”, blind submission to God; this remains common among Christians, and predominant among Protestants. Catholics does not agree with this, as they emphasis that blind submission to God does not image the likeliness of God. Does not allow for us to understand the why? God wants us understand the reason behind each commandment. (Ashley, Benedict M., O 'Rourke, Kebin D.)