DOES GOD EXIST?
INTERMEDIATE COURSE
QUESTIONS FOR LESSON 11

MORALITY AND GOD'S PLAN FOR MAN'S NEEDS

Note to Student:  Please answer the following questions to be graded.  These questions are designed to make you think.  If you get stuck and cannot answer some of the questions, just leave them blank and we will fill them in for you.

  1. What do atheists mean when they say that all religious people want to do is legislate morality?

  2. What is the MOST fundamental cause of immorality? Why are people immoral?

  3. What is meant by the phrase “situation ethics”?

  4. Look up what is meant by existentialism in a dictionary. How does this philosophy relate to morality?  (Many people follow this philosophy.)

  5. Many sex education programs tell students that it does not matter what they do sexually, as long as they take the proper precautions (use condoms, etc.). What moral standard is being used here to justify this advice? 

  6. What obvious weakness is involved in this kind of program? (There are at least two.)

      a.

      b.

  7. There have been several major political scandals in our government in recent decades--including Watergate and Iran-Contra Affair. What standard do political figures use in cases like these?

  8. What basic need of all humans is met by all moral cults, religions including the Muslim faith, and biblical Christianity?

  9. What is the difference between biblical Christianity and the cults in the way that morality and living are approached?

  10. Why is it that belief in the Bible as the literal Word of God is vital to using the Bible as a means of making moral decisions?

  11. If God does exist and if the Bible is His Word, why is it absolutely necessary that the Bible’s teaching on how to live would be the best of all possible options?

  12. What is the approach Christ takes to morality in Matthew 5, 6, and 7 and why is this approach the real answer to moral problems?

  13. Contrast the atheist and Christian approach to the following issues:

    ISSUE ATHEIST APPROACH CHRISTIAN APPROACH
    SEXUAL NEEDS

    DAMAGED BABIES

    DEATH

    CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

    TERMINALLY ILL

    USE OF DRUGS

    AID TO THOSE DISADVANTAGED


  14. Explain in each of the cases listed above, how the Christian approach is superior. There are atheist arguments you may want to think about too.

      a.  Sexual needs

      b.  Damaged babies

      c.  Death

      d.  Civil disobedience

      e.  Terminally ill

      f.  Use of drugs

      g.  Aid to the disadvantaged

Please feel free to send along any unanswered questions you may have on the ideas involved in this lesson. We welcome your questions at any time during this course of study.

Please add any questions on this course of study that have not been answered so we can take care of any remaining ideas that are not clear in your mind.

The easiest way to complete these questions is to copy and paste the questions to a word processing program (Word, WordPerfect, Notepad, etc.).  Once you finish answering the questions, e-mail the questions/answers to John N. Clayton as a text e-mail, NOT as an attachment or HTML format.  We will not accept any e-mail containing attachments.  Leave spaces between each question and answer.  The answers will be graded and commented on and returned to you.

Name:__________________________________________
Address:________________________________________
e-mail:__________________________________________

Return to Lesson 11

Return to the Main Page for the Intermediate Correspondence Course.

10/21/2009