RS Ethics tomorrow help!!!!

Hi guys, I'm really struggling with an e question "People should always obey the law". What ideas does it want us to bring in? I'm just really stueglging, and don't want an answer, just an ide a of what kind of stuff it's asking for, thanks

OP

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Original post by That'sGreat

Hi guys, I'm really struggling with an e question "People should always obey the law". What ideas does it want us to bring in? I'm just really stueglging, and don't want an answer, just an ide a of what kind of stuff it's asking for, thanks

Here are two quotes you could explore:
1 Peter 2:18 - "Accept the authority of your masters"
Acts 5:29 - "We must obey God rather than any human authority"

Original post by That'sGreat

Hi guys, I'm really struggling with an e question "People should always obey the law". What ideas does it want us to bring in? I'm just really stueglging, and don't want an answer, just an ide a of what kind of stuff it's asking for, thanks

If you ask yourself: "this question is too simple, is it really this shallow?", and you're doing a GCSE RS paper, your answer is "yes". A few ideas pop to mind:

I'll answer it in terms of Christianity:

•

Christian anarchism, which argues that there can be no authority bar God. This has links with several passages, such as one mentioned above. You could discuss that.

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Conflicts with one's own beliefs?

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Secular arguments? Context?

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The belief that one should be submissive to both one's master, and God as an unquestionable, ultimate authority.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 4

Quirky Object

20

Which religion?

I think you could either:
(1) Start from the assumption that the law reflects what is just and then bring in whether justice is context-dependent (relative) or absolute. If you're doing Christianity, you could talk about relativist ideas like situation ethics and double-effect.
(2) Consider whether the law reflects justice in all circumstances - there might be some situations where the civil idea of justice and your religion's idea of it overlap, but some where they conflict or one is stricter than the other.

Reply 5

rm.25

13

what about if you're in a life or death situation?????? Surely you want to save your own life and if that means using a bit of violence to get away from the situation, you would??? Think about 'greater good' scenarios that's what I'm going to do if a part e like that comes up (I'm doing this exam as well tomorrow) :smile:

Reply 6

geryon

1

everyone else is saying pretty good stuff, but here's some basic ideas: i'm assuming you're doing christianity, but they probably want you to talk about how

1. christians should help others, especially the oppressed, but also

2. there are a couple of biblical teachings that say you should obey the law, such as 'there is no authority except that which god has established' (romans 13:1) and christians can do things that are not illegal to help the oppressed, like donate or pray for them

for the first point you could bring in liberation theology and jesus' teachings to 'set at liberty those who are oppressed', and you could also cite others like dietrich bonhoeffer, who took part in a plot to kill hitler and was killed. you could also counter that with how the other parts of the roman catholic church view liberation theology as too violent etc.

Reply 7

That'sGreat

OP

21

Original post by _gcx

If you ask yourself: "this question is too simple, is it really this shallow?", and you're doing a GCSE RS paper, your answer is "yes". A few ideas pop to mind:

I'll answer it in terms of Christianity:

•

Christian anarchism, which argues that there can be no authority bar God. This has links with several passages, such as one mentioned above. You could discuss that.