BIG PICTURE in Focus

appreciate the role of ethics in religion

◈ METALANGUAGE ◈

Ethics – encompasses right conduct and good life

Virtue – positive traits of character

Revelation – through the written and oral law, directs people to an understanding of the nature
of human values, of how they ought to live and of what constitutes right conduct; such teachings
and examples are scattered amongst various verses and sources

◈ ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE ◈

Can we be Ethical without being Religious?

A longstanding debate has been whether ethics plays a role in religion. Most religions have an
ethical component.

Ethics, which is a major branch of philosophy, encompasses right conduct and good life.

It is significantly broader than the common conception of analyzing right and wrong. Ethics
deals with ideas such as Right, Good and Duty and these concepts were discussed in ancient
Greece by Plato and Aristotle in the 3rd & 4th Century BCE.

A central aspect of ethics is "the good life", the life worth living or life that is simply satisfying,
which is held by many philosophers to be more important than traditional moral codes.

The ancient Greeks called it eudaimonia or happiness. The ancient Greeks believed happiness
was brought about by living one’s life in accordance with virtue – positive traits of character.

Virtue in the highest sense, in an adult who has been brought up well, will not just involve good
personal habits such as courage and temperance, but also friendship and justice and intellectual
virtue.

The essence of virtue is in the wholeness of the person brought about by integrity.
Ethics, from a strictly humanistic perspective, is based on the tenets of reason: Anything that is
not rationally verifiable cannot be considered justifiable.

From this perspective, ethical principles need not derive their authority from religious doctrine.

Instead, these principles are upheld for their value in promoting independent and responsible
individuals—people who are capable of making decisions that maximize their own well-being
while respecting the well-being of others. (from: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/)

Therefore we can be ethical without being religious.

QUESTION: Do you think an ATHEIST (one who does not believe in God) can live a GOOD
or moral LIFE even if he is an atheist? Why or why not?

Concepts and Importance

The influential philosopher, Immanuel Kant defended the idea of God as a basic requirement of
ethics. "We ought to be virtuous and do our duty", he said. Kant believed virtue should be
rewarded by happiness, and it would be intolerable if it were not so.

Since it's clear that virtue often does go unrewarded in the present life, Kant argued that the soul
must be immortal. Virtue must receive its due recompense in a future life, and there must be a
God guaranteeing that it is so rewarded.

The existence of God and the immortality of the soul were what Kant called the postulates of
practical reason - the assumptions without which, so he claimed, ethics and a moral life would
not be possible.

QUESTION: Do you agree with Immanuel Kant that ETHICS AND MORAL LIFE would not
be possible without the EXISTENCE OF GOD and the IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL?
Why?

Revealed religions (God revealed the religious commands) like Zoroastrianism, Judaism,
Christianity and Islam do prescribe some clear and unambiguous rules to follow. If their
scriptures were authored or dictated by God, then the commands in them are God's own
commands. They cannot be changed if human circumstances change or ethical ideas progress.

IF RELIGION HAS A ROLE IN MORAL DECISION-MAKING, THEN WHAT SHOULD BE

THAT ROLE?

In America, for many individuals, their RELIGION IS A CENTRALLY DEFINING

CHARACTERISTIC OF WHO THEY ARE, such that they would be nearly be incapable of
making ethical decisions independently of their religious beliefs. 
Further, some of the most basic moral sentiments are directly connected to religious ideology. 
For example, most people agree that things like murder and adultery are always wrong,
regardless of circumstances.  Most major world religions echo these sentiments, and it can be
argued that the ancient codes of conduct these traditions embody are actually the original source
of our social intuitions. 

At a minimum, people do seem to regard RELIGION AS A GOOD SOURCE OF BASIC

MORAL GUIDANCE, making it unwise to argue that there ought to be no connection between
religion and ethics.

The link between religion and morality is best illustrated by the GOLDEN RULE.  Virtually all
of the world’s great religions contain in their religious texts some version of the Golden Rule:
“Do unto others as you would wish them do unto you”. In other words, people should treat others
the way we would want to be treated. This is the basic ethic that guides all religions. If people do
so, happiness will ensue (Mintz 2012).  

Some people, especially religious people, say that there can be no morality without religion.
They say that without God, ethics is impossible.

(Mintz) In my religion, Judaism, a revealed religion, ethics or morality is the attempt to arrive at
a view of the nature of human values, of how we ought to live and of what constitutes right
conduct. In order to arrive at a view, it sets goals and assesses actions by the extent to which they
further these goals, e.g. if happiness is a goal then the action which produces most happiness to
all affected is the right one.
 
Revelation too (God showing commands to people), through the written and oral law, directs
people to an understanding of the nature of human values, of how they ought to live and of what
constitutes right conduct; such teachings and examples are scattered amongst various verses and
sources. 

Examples of such moral teachings are (revealed by God): doing right and good (beyond the call
of duty), love of neighbor, discipline or training of character under the law, piety beyond the law,
the need to be respectful, earning a living, engagement in learning and culture,  and so forth.
  
The ROLE OF PHILOSOPHERS is to accurately try to define and promote ethical concepts
based upon LOGIC AND REASON.  A RELIGIOUS PERSON on the other hand, follows his or
her code of conduct because HE BELIEVES THAT IT IS PROPER BEHAVIOR AND
REACTION TO THE VARYING CHALLENGES AND CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH ARISE
DURING THE COURSE OF LIFE. 

Steven Mintz (2012) ended with two quotes. The first is from Kant: “In law a man is guilty when
he violates the rights of others. In ethics he is guilty if he only thinks of doing so.”
The second one sums up, which Mintz believed, the moral challenges of the time. Archie Carroll
in Mintz's literature, a noted ethicist stated that religion and faith are being driven out of the
public square, the Judeo-Christian ethical foundations that have sustained the American country
since its beginning, are being lost and are being replaced with a humanistic amorality, a self-
centered, pragmatic indifference that will ensure that our moral compasses will fail to point us in
the right direction in the future.

◈ SELF HELP ◈

You can also refer to the source/s below to help you further understand the lesson.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Religion and Morality

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/religion-morality/