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The Role of Religion in Ethics:
A reaction paper on the movie PK (2014)

As humanity progressed, different religions and philosophies emerged all around the
world. It made absolute sense. Religion provided beliefs that guide one’s moral compass. Every
religion has its own sets of rules and ideas of what is right, wrong, good, or bad. It is undeniable
that religions play a vital role in ethics and morality, and vice versa. Even a great philosopher
like Immanuel Kant supported the notion of having a God as a basic requirement of ethics
(Fremstedal, 2013). Some people are very religious that they make ethical decisions based on
their religious beliefs. With that being said, it has played a huge part in establishing and
maintaining social order. However, to what extent can our faith and worshipping maintain such
social order?

The Indian movie PK opened my eyes more to the extreme reality of today’s society.
Although the storyline revolves around faith, religion, and the presence of God, it does not
question nor mock these. The movie is actually questioning and mocking the blind faith of man
which is very relevant in the present day. I love how the movie supports the notions that religion
and believing in God are important, but these alone will not maintain the supposed social order.
True social order is achieved when people act accordingly to their faith. Our faith in God and
religious beliefs are only meant to guide us in our moral development. Which means, we cannot
develop if we do not act upon our beliefs.

As my father once told me, we humans, by ourselves are weak. We always need
something to believe in and religion gave us just that. As much as I support the role of religion in
ethics and believe in God, I notice that many people are using His name in vain. They religiously
post bible passages online and go to church every Sunday to worship but spend the remaining
days in the week to judge and mistreat others. These were also evident in the movie PK. I do not
intend to attack any religion but I do also notice that some preachers use God’s name in vain,
especially in the course of depriving other people of their rights. Such as in the case of the
LGBTQ+ issue. This was also evident in the movie when fraudulent godmen influence the public
to engage in meaningless rituals and used God in breaking a relationship on the basis of
“religious differences”.

To put it simply, we must reflect on our actions to develop in life. Being faithful to and
religiously worshipping God means nothing if we do not act accordingly. We should respect
religions, but we must also be wary of blindly following rules that deprive people of love,
respect, and basic human rights. Also, just as PK said in the movie and as God told us in one of
His commandments, we should believe in the one and only God.

References
Fremstedal, R. (2013). The Moral Argument for the Existence of God and Immortality. Journal
of Religious Ethics, 41(1), 50–78. https://doi.org/10.1111/jore.12004