Religion as a Guiding Force in Morality

The second reason to act morally is because there is religion. Sometimes moral codes are obtained by theologians who clarify holy books, like the Bible in Christianity, the Torah in Judaism, and the Qur 'an in Islam. Their conclusions are often accepted as absolute by their believers. Those who believe in God view him as the supreme law giver; a God to whom we owe obedience and allegiance. In other words, they think that being a good person is one who obey god by following his commandments. Religion helps people to judge whether a certain act is good or bad, which can be considered as the definition of morality. Most religions promote the same values which are: fairness, loyalty, honesty, trust, etc.... Similarly, McGinn lists the same qualities

Some people think that the religion is God-given and flexible for all times, but the other see it as traditions that change with time. Folkways can change to mores which are habits and traditions that are used to make moral judgments. Sumner believes that sometimes mores and folkways can be harmful and dangerous (24). Therefore, a person may think that what was right for ancestors may not be right these days now. Thus, most religions’ main goal is advocating to have good morals. Some believers feel that to have morals, they should follow their religion’s commandments. Additionally, thinking that there is an afterlife, which is the Day of Judgment and heaven and hell, morality becomes more desirable. Some religions teach that this life, which we are living right now, is nothing but a test for your morals and how much you successfully followed the required commandants. A person is evaluated by his actions and they are ones that determine one’s place in heaven or hell in the afterlife. As a result, people act morally for the benefit of their

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