Today, without an awareness of the ethical dimension of their work, professionals in medicine risk limiting themselves to the scientific and technological aspects of their work. Once this happens, “health care professionals can be strongly tempted … to become manipulators of life, or even agents of death. In the face of this temptation their responsibility today is greatly increased.
(Part 2 of 3). All four of the world’s major religions--Hinduism and Buddhism, Christianity and Islam--teach that there is a judgment at the end of life. Immediately following death, each person receives the just recompense for his or her life. Catholics call this “the particular judgment.”
(Part 1 of 3). Twenty nine years after painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo painted his famous Last Judgment on the chapel’s western wall. The spirit of the latter work differs significantly from that of the former. Gone was the optimism.
This past November, the American Atheists organization provoked a debate. But not without merit. As soon as the Christians began their Advent services in church and their Christmas shopping in the malls, some atheists attacked the very fact that Jesus was born.