Download docx RELIGION AND MORALITY

Religion and morality1
Relationship between religion and morality
Religious scholars have not been successful in drawing a boundary between religion and morality,
but three broad views exists (Wainwright), that morality:

Depends greatly on religion

Is not dependent on religion

Is opposed to religion
The first view(morality depends on religion) argues that morality will not exist without religion
since moral codes are derived from religion and that the moral standards are judged using a
marking scheme set by religion, morality is judged as either wrong or right on the basis of
conformity or contradiction of biblical teachings or any other religious tradition, Muslims uses
Quran to judge whether an action is right or wrong, the Christians uses the bible, Catholics will
mostly consider the papal teachings to judge morality, other sources might be considered
unreliable on this context. (Nissen, Andersen and Reuter)
Non-religious world have also adopted religious moral teachings and have used religion to judge
their aspect of morality especially on matters like war and abortion, in this way it can be seen that
religion and morality relates in a big away, as we can see that even people who don’t subscribe to
aspects of religion, uses it to make judgements, in another practical example, the media is usually
quick to present religious leaders found with financial irregularities or with extramarital affairs
because the society expect them to behave in a moral manner, they strongly believe that morality
is determined by religion. (Hitlin and Vaisey)
Religion and morality2
In other aspects, some religious believers have strongly been opposed to moral outrages, they argue
that morality does not depend on religion, others says morality have little relations with religion.
Some famous religious people have resisted the moral changes that appears not to be in the interest
of the society and addressing the dynamics of the ever changing world. Famous religious groups
such as Christian action for research and education (CARE) in the UK for instance, have lobbied
for reduction I the time to perform legal abortion to 18 weeks and also to legalize assisted suicide.
Some of these groups are quick to react to moral outrages against the secular world and even argues
that atheist can be moral people too even though they don’t recognize the presences of a superior
God. (Hitlin and Vaisey)
To finalize the discussion, it can be noted that religion and morality are not mutually inclusive, it
is not a must for somebody to be religious so as to be moral, atheist and other secular individuals
can be moral, only that the society has tentatively derived the judgement on morality basing on
religion. Anyone can be moral if they wish to be, and are not necessarily religious. (Wainwright)
REFERENCES
1. Wainwright, William J. Religion and Morality. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2005. Print.
2. Hitlin, Steven and Stephen Vaisey. Handbook of the Sociology of Morality. New York:
Springer, 2010. Print.
3. Nissen, Ulrik, Svend Andersen, and Lars Reuter. The Sources of Public Morality - On the
Ethics and Religion Debate. Munster: LIT Verlag, 2003. Print.