Gabriel Giacoppo January 27, 2014 Period 5 History 7

BELIEF
Thesis statement: A belief system is an essential factor in a successful civilization, because it helps people determine right from wrong, and helps establish moral guidelines for the society. What behaviors do you want the people of your civilization to be known for? In the civilization of swampytreeland, there will be certain beliefs that this civilization will have to use in order to be successful. These behaviors include being respectful of others, and rather than being greedy and selfish, helping each other to overcome the challenges in the civilization.

Opening paragraph
The idea of Belief is a powerful thought. Belief is abundant in any successful civilization, and it is determined by the peoples needs throughout that society. Believing in something such as a higher power and establishing what is right and what is wrong, or what is necessary and what is not, can determine the way people act throughout their community. People who subscribe to belief systems such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Confucianism in their daily life are clear about what they should do to influence positive aspects of a strong community. A belief system is an essential factor in a successful civilization, because it helps people determine how they should act in order to positively impact their community, and helps establish moral guidelines for the society. To better understand the role of belief systems within a civilization and how they can influence the actions and decisions of a person, consider the following moral dilemma:

Gabriel Giacoppo January 27, 2014 Period 5 History 7

In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the drug originally cost him to produce. He paid $400 for the radium and charged $4,000 for a small dose of the drug. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money and tried every legal means, but he could only get together about $2,000, which is half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying, and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said, "No, I discovered the drug and I'm going to make money from it." So, having tried every legal means, Heinz gets desperate and considers breaking into the man's store to steal the drug for his wife.

In any successful civilization a belief system must be maintained to ensure that people help and support each other in a community, and understand what their values are in order to establish clear moral guidelines. If people do not develop a belief system that is suitable for the civilization, and establish what the moral guidelines are, the civilization will not be in unity, and people will not know how to make certain moral decisions. The way that people live their lives is determined by their beliefs. Therefore, civilizations should develop positive and strong beliefs and clear ideas of what is right and wrong. Examples of well-developed belief systems include Hinduism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. In Hinduism the primary belief centers around preserving life and generating positive Karma. Therefore, Hindus review every moral decision from this perspective. Confucianism, on the other hand, focuses on respect of elders, and respect for people in a higher class, as well as being truthful and kind toward others. These are the values that a Confucianist considers when making moral decisions. In the moral dilemma scenario above a Hindu would clearly act differently than a Confucianist, because each has a distinct

Gabriel Giacoppo January 27, 2014 Period 5 History 7 way of living and has different perspectives, which would guide their actions. A Hindu would likely break into the store because he would want to preserve life at all costs, and perform a good deed to generate positive Karma. The Hindu would believe strongly that trying to save someones life would bring forth good Karma. He would likely believe that saving his wifes life outweighed stealing the medication because his belief system centers on life preservation. A Hindu would be supporting the person that was dying because he would be trying his hardest to save them. In Hindu beliefs, supporting the community would mean doing everything they could to help the dying person. For example, Hindus believe that all life forms have a soul, so Hindus respect all types of life and avoid doing them harm (Frey 148.) This shows that Hindus care about their Karma, and life preservation. To a Hindu, it would likely not matter if he went to jail in this situation, because he knows that Karma would reward him for his good deed later in this life or in the next. In conclusion, a belief system is vital to a civilizations success because it provides moral guidelines and helps people determine how they should act in certain situations. Therefore, when faced with the moral decision noted above, a person who subscribed to Hindu beliefs would likely break into the store and steal the medication because his belief system would guide him to value life and to create positive karma. By contrast, a Confucianist would likely not break into the store to steal the medicine because he believes that people should be kind, truthful and honest toward one another and would not consider stealing to break these ethics. Therefore, unlike the Hindu, the need for the medication would likely not outweigh the cost of breaking the law and stealing. In addition, the Confucianist would respect people of a higher class, and may consider the druggist to be in a higher class, and would not want to defy the druggist. Furthermore, a Confucianist would believe that he would not be respecting the community to steal something. For example, Confucius taught that society worked well when all people acted properly

Gabriel Giacoppo January 27, 2014 Period 5 History 7 based upon their roles and their relationships with others (Frey 208). This clearly shows that a Confucianist would feel that it is morally wrong to break into the store and steal from another person. In conclusion, in a successful society, a belief system provides a moral structure that helps people to determine right from wrong when making moral decisions. Clearly, a person who believed in Confucianism would feel that he would have to be honest, truthful, and nonviolent in his daily life, and would not steal because of these strong beliefs. Finally, people in a successful civilization have identified a belief system to follow in order to make the most effective response possible when it comes to moral dilemmas. This is because people should be conscious to follow the order of the beliefs in their civilization, and respect what others in their community believe in. Everyone needs to play their part and help each other in a civilization in order to create a well-developed community. If people have a clear understanding of what they must do to support people, and also know what might hurt them, people will work together and be strong. Clearly, all successful civilizations have different belief systems that will show the people what they should do to make their community strong as well as provide moral standards for people to use in their daily life.

Gabriel Giacoppo January 27, 2014 Period 5 History 7

BELIEF * Buddhism- Eightfold Path and Right Action * Confucianism- Five basic relationships Do not do to others what you
would not want done to you

* Judaism- Teachings about caring for fellow people and helping people
and treating them with proper respect, You shall love your neighbor as yourself

*Christianity- Care about others love thy neighbor as thy self

- You shall not murder - You shall not commit adultery - Honor thy mother and thy father - Do not steal - Do not bear false witness BRAVERY-FIATH-LOYALTY-RESPECT