John Stuart Mill's View Of Utilitarianism

During the 1800s, a secular theory emerged called Utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is a practical way of making ethical decisions without using any religion or faith to come up with whether something is right or wrong but rather focuses on the consequences of the actions (Ruddell, 2004). When using utilitarianism a person is evaluating the consequences and determining how much good will be generated versus how much pain will be caused by the decision. Mill’s is one of the people associated with developing the utilitarianism approach and his theory is that something can be good when it produces the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people (Ruddell, 2004). This theory can be looked at in two different ways the first is that it focuses on the well-being and good of the many verses the elite and powerful. Mills was trying to create the maximum …show more content…
According to this view of utilitarianism, the loss of one individual’s rights does not justify the rights of the greater good of others. As Christians, we should not use the utilitarianism theory because we believe that all men and women are created equally and deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. Utilitarianism can take away rights from individuals if it focuses on the greater good of a group of people. As Christians, we do not want to do something that will hurt others. If we would not like something done to us, we understand as Christians that we should not do it to others. An example of utilitarianism in the United States is taking taxes from hard-working middle-class Americans and giving it to lower class Americans who do not work, but are able to afford nice cars, Gucci shoes, and illegal drugs because the government pays for their food and