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The relationship between religion and morality
What is the relationship between religion and morality
The relationship between religion and morality
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Morality and Religion
Three Assumptions about Morality and Religion For quite some time religion has been one of the most popular sources of morality. In both times of need and perplexity, believers have consulted priests and rabbis; avidly reading their sacred texts; and even looking for guidance to religious traditions. All of this mentioned is perfectly natural. The thought of religion itself is huge, and often times we forget that there are many different types of it. With that being said, millions of people view morality through the lens of one religion or another, and it is very important that we take all of this into consideration.
Three assumptions about morality and religion are:
1.) Religious belief is needed to get us to do our duty.
2.) Morality must be created by someone, and God is by far the best candidate for the job.
3.) Religious wisdom is the key to providing us with moral guidance.
It also says that if we are blinded to the reasons to be good, then we will likely be bad. If we have no belief in God, we are more likely to stray away from the path of virtue. This can make it harder to sacrifice self-interest when duty calls. This all disappears once God is brought into the mix and our will is strengthened. It is thought that religious people will be more conscientious than atheists or agnostics. This could be true, but if it is, what explains
The conclusion is that since God exists (due to the theistic nature of Divine Command Theory), then morality is determined by his word.
When one thinks about morals, he or she often find himself in difficulty. It is a fact that morals are mostly passed from one generation to another. However, we all face challenges when trying to understand whether they are all accurate or not. To start with, Morals are those values that normally protect life and always respectful of the dual life value of individual and others. Therefore, Morals are those rules that normally govern actions that re wrong or right. We know that morals may be for all people in the society or individual beliefs in the society. Some of the great morals include freedom, charity, truth, honesty and patience and all of them have a common goal. It is a fact that when they function well in the society, they end up protecting and enhancing life. These morals need to be examined always to make sure that they are performing their mission of protecting life. As a matter of fact, morals are derived from the government and society, self and religion. When morals are derived from the government and society, they tend to change as the morals and laws of the society changes. An example of the changes is seen in the cases of marriage versus individuals living together. It is true that in the past generation, it was quite rare to see any couple living together without having any legal matrimonial ceremony. However, this
Throughout the course of history, man has looked to religion for answers. Curiosity as to how we got here and why we are have driven people to seek out answers to these somewhat unanswerable questions. Over the past few thousand years, several varying religions have been established, some more prominent than others. Many of them share a similar story of a divine creator who has always been and will always be. In the case of Christianity, whether true or not, it has proven to be beneficial to society as a whole. The Bible set the standard for the moral compass that humans live their lives by to this day. The key fundamental problem with religion, although not the fault of religion, is that man has often used it as a gateway to power and prominence. In the case of the 18th century Gallican church, the French were abusing their religious powers, thus creating vast inequality throughout France, which eventually led to a rebellion against the church, and the eventual destruction of the church within France.
There is a significant difference between government and religious morals even though both are ethical authorities. These two moral authorities conflict with one another while both are to help people make sou...
Morality has a strong connection with religion. The connection is so strong that most panels on ethics contain Ministers of God. This scenario therefore creates a natural question, “Does morality depend solely on religion?” The first point to understand in this scenario is the fact that God and religion are not the same. For instance, Christianity and Christ are not the same. The existence of God is independent of us just as the planets of Jupiter and Saturn are independent of human existence. The independence of God from us makes him prone to human weaknesses. For instance, Christians proclaim that their God is god but it is obvious to state that the religion - Christianity in itself has not been good as expected. For instance, when one sees
Morality and ethics have always been a large source of debate and contention between different factions of various interests, beliefs, and ideals due to its centrality and foundational role in society and civilization and incredible importance to everyday life and decision making. In many of these disputes religious belief, or a lack thereof, serves as an important driving force behind one or both sides of the argument. In the modern world, one of the bigger instances of this can be seen in the many debates between Atheistic and religious individuals about the implications of religious belief on morality. One of the most famous Atheists, Christopher Hitchens, asserts that religion is not only unnecessary for morality, but actually impedes it. In his work God is Not Great: Why Religion Poisons Everything, Christopher Hitchens challenges religious believers to “name an ethical statement or action, made or performed by a person of faith that could not have been made or performed by a non-believer”, and proudly states afterwards that many have made the attempt but no one has given him a satisfactory answer. However, the best response to this challenge is to point out the inherent flaws in his logic, the unfairness of his challenge, and the fact that Hitchens is asking the wrong question in the first place.
Morals are usually the standards by one which lives in, whether them being good or bad. However, how about when religion influences ones morals? Religion isn’t or it doesn’t work for everyone, and that’s okay. But, there are many people out there that religion influences their morals; and the most common reason for that is that religion was influenced into them and into their morals as a child. Iri...
Morality does not depend upon religion although this is "an almost automatic assumption." (INSERT REF HERE 69) According to The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Ethics, religion and morality "are to be defined differently and have no definitional connections with each other. Conceptually and in principle, morality and a religious value system are two distinct kinds of value systems or action guides. (INSERT REF HERE 70) Facts, statistics, and expert evidence have demonstrated that morality can be found in Evolution, Secularism, and Modern Huminism (free thinking), to name a few, without the presence of religion.
“Decreased moral standards and ethics related to ignorance to accepted social behavior standards”. Morality is defined as an understanding and distinguishing right and wrong and behaving according to socially accepted standards (The Definition of Morality, 2002). People can be inconsiderate and conflictful. From the assessment, it was evident that some people have lack of respect to other’s personal properties and even their own. Abandoned houses and trash on properties suggest social and moral degradations. Some of the contributing factors might be poverty, unemployment, and mental illnesses. Lack of morality might be a problem that affects other states and even countries. However, in some areas of Spokane, it is evident that people
The first one is because of the good feeling that they get from acting morally. The second reason is that there are religions that are used as moral guidelines. The diversity of reasons for acting morally could be due to the fact that every group of people has its own set of values. It is essential to accept that holding a belief without any sufficient evidence doesn’t harm its holder only, but even the people around him because beliefs control our actions. Generally, to better describe the formation of our ideas and avoid limited beliefs, we should replace the word belief with the word thought. Limited beliefs can be acquired by the media, relatives, and friends. People tend to gather information that supports their existing beliefs rather than the ones that form new beliefs. Therefore, instead of owning a belief, a person should question the limiting beliefs and come up with theories that are based on evidence. Overall, the question “why be moral?” is an essential question because it is a socially important. Thus, because beliefs are not a private matter, a better question can be: would you like the others to behave morally with
Morality and views about right and wrong are not something that is formed by human minds. It comes from the creator God. It is described in this article that we can know morality by looking at God’s actions throughout history as seen in the Bible and throughout time (Kennedy, 2009). God sets the standards for moral behavior by looking to him through the Bible and
Does morality depend on religion? Why? Might morality not depend on religion? Why not? Is it desirable for our moral rules and principles to depend on religion? Is it necessary? I believe that morality can depend on religion, but I also think that it does not have to depend on religion. I believe that people do not usually look at what is morally right or wrong on a daily basis. The people that do, it is rare. It all comes down to how a person was raised, taught, and their surroundings they grew up with or the people they grew up with. I do think that it is desirable to some people that grew up in a religious household for them to think that morality depends on religion. I do not, however, think that religion is necessary for morality. I think that
Religion is the main source of morals and values today. I feel like many people today are not following the word of God. I think that religion is overlooked, and not taught enough. For example, colleges, high schools, and many other places are not even allowed to pray, teach or preach the word of the bible. I feel like that is a problem in the United States today. It has had the effect of more violence, problems in families, and the non- education of the younger generation. I feel that though religion is choice, it should be introduced, because many don't even get the opportunity to learn about it.
Religion has screwed us up for a long time and we'd be better off without it. By "us" I mean Americans living in the 21st century. Without religions we would have fewer labels separating us from each other and we wouldn't hate Jews or Catholics or Muslims. If we didn't have religions, we wouldn't have to convert anyone or "save" anyone. If we didn't have religions, people could no longer get caught up in the fine lines of religious rightousness or be trapped in a double-standard morality. And most importantly, we would be truly free of religious engendered guilt that never quite goes away.
When considering morality, worthy to note first is that similar to Christian ethics, morality also embodies a specifically Christian distinction. Studying a master theologian such as St. Thomas Aquinas and gathering modern perspectives from James Keenan, S. J. and David Cloutier serve to build a foundation of the high goal of Christian morality. Morality is a primary goal of the faith community, because it is the vehicle for reaching human fulfillment and happiness. Therefore, great value can be placed on foundations of Christian morality such as the breakdown of law from Aquinas, the cultivation of virtues, the role of conscience in achieving morality, and the subject of sin described by Keenan.