How compatible is Utilitarianism with a religious approach to ethics?

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  • Created by: Julia0698
  • Created on: 15-05-16 14:41

How compatible is Utilitarianism with a religious approach to ethics?

Advantages

  • The idea of sacrificing for others is common to many religious traditions.
  • The Buddhist ideal is to avoid suffering and involves accumulating positive karma - links to minimising pain.
  • The idea of conscience can be related to the calculations of best outcome.
  • The Rule Utilitarian idea of doing something because it will lead to general universal welfare can be linked to certain parts of the scripture, such as Jesus healing on the Sabbath, because of the end result, despite being agains the Sabbath law of no work on the Sabbath.

Disadvantages

  • Utilitarianism is against the idea of divinely ordained moral codes.
  • It is against the absolute ideas of natural law as adopted by the Roman Catholic tradition.
  • 'Means to an end' contradicts sanctity of life - Bentham believed that no one can have intrinsic, human worth just for existing, which goes against Kant's categorical imperative of 'Treat people as an end in themselves.'
  • 'Means to an end' can be seen as lacking compassion, which goes against Fletcher's agape love.

Evaluation

Utilitarianism, although teleological which is usually seen as taking emotions into account, seems to lack compassion which means that it can't fit in with some religious views, such as agape love. However, Mill's idea of general universal welfare could be linked to certain parts of the scripture, such as Jesus' actions concerning the welfare of people.

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