It is fairly common to be taught as a child to obey what those in authority tell you to do such as parents, teachers, religious leaders, etc. Absolute obedience can give certain adults more power than they should have in certain cases.

I will look at what Christianity and Islam have to say about this subject since their followers account for a huge percentage of the world internationally.

The Bible speaks upon this matter of obedience with a few verses such as:

Obedience to God:

Job 36:11: “If they hear and serve Him, They shall end their days in prosperity, And their years in pleasures.

Romans 2:13: for not the hearers of the Law are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.

Obedience to Parents:

Ephesians 6:1: Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

Obedience to Authorities:

Hebrews 13:17: Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.

Colossians 3:22: Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.

1 Peter 1:14: As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.

It is clear that the Bible advocates obedience to a god and to parents which is pretty obvious. It is understood that one must obey his parents to be well-behaved, learn manners, and to be learn good habits. Those are the commands which are much easier to accept. When it comes to obedience in authority, things get a little morally hazy. When I read Hebrews 13:17, I immediately thought of Nazi Germany during World War II. Imagine the German Christians during this time reading their Bibles every day and seeing this passage. Now imagine them applying it to their lives and submitting themselves to absolute loyalty to Germany as it was. This verse speaks for itself as a morally unjust command. Leaders should not always have people below them submitting to their authority.

Here is what the Qur’an has to say about this topic:

Al-Baqara, Chapter #2, Verse #182: But he who fears an inclination to a wrong course or an act of disobedience on the part of the testator, and effects an agreement between the parties, there is no blame on him. Surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.

An-Nisa, Chapter #4, Verse #81: And they say: obedience. But when they go out from your presence, a party of them decide by night upon doing otherwise than what you say; and Allah writes down what they decide by night, therefore turn aside from them and trust in Allah, and Allah is sufficient as a protector.

Al-Isra, Chapter #17, Verse #8: It may be that your Lord will have mercy on you, and if you again return (to disobedience) We too will return (to punishment), and We have made hell a prison for the unbelievers.

An-Noor, Chapter #24, Verse #2: (As for) the fornicatress and the fornicator, flog each of them, (giving) a hundred stripes, and let not pity for them detain you in the matter of obedience to Allah, if you believe in Allah and the last day, and let a party of believers witness their chastisement.

There are many more verses for the Qur’an as well as the Bible for obedience but these are the ones that stand out. For the first verse here, it states that anyone who is scared of committing a sin or being disobedient to a person who has made a will and causes an agreement between the two, that person has no blame. Fear is advocated as a holy trait. The second verse commands someone to trust in Allah, rather than his friends, as Allah is a good enough protector. The third verse bluntly states that if you disobey you will be punished and that hell has been made a prison for the unbelievers. The fourth verse is similar to the Old Testament in the Bible in that a god requires the believers to punish certain sinners in public. It commands the believers to flog those who fornicate 100 times each to be obedient to Allah. Also, there must be witnesses that are believers.

I’m sure that you’ve gotten the picture by now. Absolute, blind obedience can prove dangerous to society. One must learn to obey those who are deserving of the people’s respect. This way we will not have authorities who abuse their power and we will be able to replace them if necessary.

Just an extra note: I have been reading a book called “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque and it goes into detail into the situation of German soldiers in World War I. There is a group of soldiers who agree that the hierarchy of the military is largely corrupt. Those in power, such as generals, mistreat those that they have power over. The soldiers believe that when a man has lived in poor conditions his whole life and is then given a larger power, the power changes the man to want even more power and he becomes cruel and unjust.

The picture was taken from a great video by the University of Texas, Austin’s McCombs School of Business.

http://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/video/obedience-to-authority/