Academized Tutor Mary Watson on How to Address Faith in Essays on Moral and Ethical Dilemmas

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Writing essays on moral and ethical dilemmas often requires addressing faith, a topic that can be sensitive and complex. As an experienced tutor at Academized, Mary Watson has spent years guiding students through these challenges. According to Mary, understanding how to approach faith in an essay on moral dilemmas is crucial for creating thoughtful, balanced arguments. Whether you’re writing about abortion, euthanasia, or other tough subjects, Mary offers practical advice for how to respectfully include faith in your essay. Throughout this article, we will unpack Mary’s three main suggestions for talking about faith in the context of moral and ethical quandaries, so that you can discuss this complex topic with greater ease and clarity. Academized is a platform that offers writing services, helping students improve their essays by providing professional support with structure, content, and research.

1. Understand the Role of Faith in the Argument

The second thing you want to do is to consider how faith relates to the moral or ethical issue of your essay. Faith can be a strong backbone from which many people draw their convictions about moral dilemmas and is thus likely to bear on the issue you’re discussing. Watson suggests you ask yourself questions such as, ‘What role does faith take in this issue?’ and ‘How do the teachings of religion encourage its adherents to think about this dilemma?’

Make sure that you define faith as precisely as possible in relation to the specific problem or dilemma. This will ensure you do not engage in empty generalities, and that your point is focused on faith, and the ethical problem or dilemma, in clear terms. To give an example, in an essay on euthanasia, some people will object to the practice because of the sanctity of life (a perspective sometimes bolstered by faith). Any reference to this angle will add depth.

2. Be Respectful and Objective

When engaging with faith in an essay, you should bear in mind that there may be people who believe in what you are writing about. ‘Don’t be disrespectful,’ Mary also said. If you do not agree with a faith-based point of view, and don’t want to engage with it, she said you should avoid using dismissive language or negative critiques. Instead, reflect on how faith-based views add to the conversation.

Use evenly balanced language to represent all sides in their best light. For example, you might initially come out with ‘Faith is wrong insofar as it…’ Change that to ‘Some would argue that faith leads to diversity of moral opinion on this matter, as evidenced in…’ This way, you’re presenting your essay in a respectful tone while taking all sides of the issue seriously. Bear in mind that it’s not your job to attack faith but to consider it thoughtfully with regard to the moral dilemma you’re examining.

3. Support Arguments with Data and Examples

Mary reminds students that faith is what you believe, but you still need facts and examples to support your essays. She says that a common mistake is to make them too purely faith-based. However, the best ones use faith perspectives combined with data and real-world examples. This will make your argument stronger.

In 2019, 70 percent of Americans said that their faith influences their positions on moral issues, and 56 per cent of those said faith was a ‘major role’ in their decisions about abortion and healthcare ethics. Such statistics can bolster your claim about the wide-reaching influence of faith on particular ethical debates. Real-world examples of laws that have been guided by religion can support your claims.

4. Compare Faith-Based and Secular Perspectives

If there is an ethical dilemma at the heart of your essay, perhaps you could present a faith-based argument alongside a secular argument. Showing that you have discussed an issue from both angles makes your essay more complete. Mary recommends that students put forward both sides before drawing conclusions.

Here’s a comparison table to illustrate how you can present both perspectives:

Such a comparison puts all the pieces on the chessboard, so to speak, before the reader’s eyes; it makes apparent the multiple forces in play in an ethical quandary; and it shows that you can draw upon a variety of perspectives to enhance your case.

5. Focus on Dialogue, Not Debate

In essays on moral dilemmas, which often deal with controversial issues, the virtue of faith speaks in dialogue, not debate. ‘It’s impossible to persuade a reader,’ says Mary, ‘that a particular course of action is right or wrong, and dialogue reinforces that point. Instead, a writer invites readers to think about the issue they’ve presented in all its complexity.’ By opening up discussion, you invite readers to consider the multifaceted nature of the topic, not to pick a team.

You can do this by asking questions of yourself in the essay, or by raising areas of agreement between religious and secular views (eg, even if faith views don’t permit euthanasia, both religious and secular groups might agree that it’s important to respect the dignity of life; finding this common ground can strengthen your argument). Many students also find it helpful to rely on the best research papers writing services when crafting essays that involve complex topics like faith, ensuring they receive guidance on both content and structure.

6. Acknowledge Faith’s Limitations in Public Policy

Mary tells her students often that faith has its purpose in one’s personal life, but that it is less relevant in public policy, especially when one considers that not all regard others’ faith-based values as paramount in ethical decision making. In supporting any given position in an ethical dilemma essay, the writer should always take into account that public policy based on a narrow range of faith-based values might not apply to everyone. In considering public policies – such as abortion, healthcare, etc – when governments make laws, they must include all people in the laws, not simply those who share a common faith.

While faith might guide personal choices, public policies must be based on a system of ethical values that all citizens can agree to and work from together – regardless of their belief (or lack thereof) in a divine being. ‘It’s really important that you point out your thesis’s limitations, because it makes your argument much more thoughtful,’ Mary says.

7. Use Faith to Deepen, Not Simplify, the Argument

Thirdly, Mary recommends to the students to use religion to create nuance, not to simplify the argument. Faith-based perspectives can bring depth to ethical debate by raising a wider range of important questions about purpose and meaning in life and in moral action. When we cling to only one approach of answering questions, however, we can restrict the discussion. By combining a faith-based and a secular approach, you can create a much richer and nuanced discussion that addresses both the human spirit and practicality of the problem.

Rather than an end to moral enquiry – a ‘because God says so’ – use faith as a means to investigate values and principles, and to probe what they suggest might be worth doing. That way, your essay will be considered complex and balanced.

Conclusion

Finding ways to thoughtfully address faith in essays addressing moral and ethical dilemmas – or any argument, really – is definitely a challenge. But it’s also an exciting opportunity to create more complex, nuanced and meaningful conversations. With insight like Mary Watson’s, you should be able to bring faith into your essays in a thoughtful way and still maintain an argument that’s respectful, balanced and well-supported; one that makes facts, consideration of others and dialogue central. With this arsenal of tools, you too can write with skill and sensitivity on the topics that most of us would rather not talk about but that, sadly, we each have to contend with.