Terrorism is a complex and tragically violent topic that affects every corner of the globe. Terrorist attacks may be domestic, such as those that have occurred in Oklahoma City, Iraq, or Colombia. They may also be carried out by external threats such as those that have occurred in Spain, England, and the United States. In many cases, the violence of terrorism is met with more violence in the form of retribution.

Given what you’ve learned in this course so far, is there an ethical lens or idea that you feel, if more people truly understood, could help stop or slow the cycle of violence which plagues our world? Support your stance with one of the moral theories covered in this course.

PEER1

The population continues to grow exponentially. Which means there are more people to do bad things. I believe that terrorism is going to happen. Certain things in society make this problem worse. The internet can be a helpful tool, but it can also be the cause of much unnecessary strife. It is a problem that the internet is an uncensored abyss of information. There is a problem when anything can be posted with no way to take it down. The “news” is being reported before the story is even accurate. The more the population grows, the more different ideas get stirred into the pot. It would take an act of God, and nothing less, for the whole world to be at peace. I don’t think that changing peoples understanding of anything is going to lessen terrorism. That being said, Confucious’s theory Ren could impact humanity’s thought process. If all understood the idea of empathy, taught it to our children from the beginning of life, and modeled it in all that we do, the impact would be significant. There are still going to be bad people in the world. There is still going to be retaliation. It is true what Gandhi said, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” If we truly want to make a difference in the world, we must first look inward. We cannot fix other people. We are capable of fixing ourselves and aware that we reap what we sow. Unfortunately, people innately worry about themselves and their own. How cool would it be if every person made it a daily goal to show empathy and compassion to others, the way that Jesus did?

PEER 2

I think that pluralism or religious pluralism could help stop the flow of terrorism because it stands for two ore more religions with mutually exclusive truths claims are equally valid. Most of the time the act of terrorism is due to someones beliefs and clashes with another belief.