Iris Murdoch's Text: Morality And Religion

In Iris Murdoch’s text, “Morality and Religion,” she discusses what it means to be moral and what role religion plays. She brings to light the idea of being virtuous and how motives determine virtue. Murdoch points out that in order for you to be virtuous than your acts must not be done because you feel an obligation to do them, rather you act virtuously for the sake of it. This line of reasoning demonstrates that being religious may not equate with being moral, and it could be the case that those without any religious conventions could be the most virtuous. Many people tie together religion and morality, however, this is not always necessarily the case..

The notion is that religious individuals cannot really be virtuous if they are doing it out of the sense it is their duty has other motives. Murdoch in her generalized idea of duty states, duty always to have pure thoughts and good motives” (Murdoch, par. 3). The main focus of motives being good for duty. Religious text may decree you to be kind to thy neighbor, or help the poor, these are virtuous tasks, but if they are done because of the religion then it can’t be said it done out of the kindness of your heart, but rather you an obligation. When duty becomes an obligation it losses the value of virtue, for your actions were done with

If a person has no sense of obligation to a duty, then their actions would be virtuous. When there is no sense of having to do a task and if your motives were good, virtuous. ”Dutifulness could be an account of a morality with no hint of religion” (Murdoch, par. 3). Many times, atheists are thought to be immoral, however, their behavior can be interpreted as more virtuous because they have no conviction. So long as they are doing good things because it's their duty. In some sense, you’re a better person, if you do the good things without religion because there's nothing obligating you to do