It is undeniable that religion is related direcly with moral. In our everyday situations, our strongest motivation to act morally is influenced by our religion. Based on questions such as "why can't I do this or why do that?", most of the time, the answer is, because that is what religion says. Simple example is, when we are deciding against premarital sex, our common justification is, "it is wrong for me to commit such an act, as it is prohibited in my religion." If all of us does this, there will be no problem. How we choose to lead our lives is determined by our religious background.
All religions consist of moral guidance. If we were to compare between MORAL and RELIGION, the differences are there, but is not such a big matter. Morals which are found in religion comprise of 2 things:
1) How we communicate with other people
2) Ethical guidelines such as, no killing, no lying, no stealing, etc. In Christianity, this is also known as the Ten Commandments.
The second guidelines are more important and is accepted by all religions. Since this is accepted by all religions, therefore, our moral perspectives are also similar.
Why is it moral teachings in this religion is very important? Because it comes from GOd. We can rationalize why we shouldn't kill another person, or rape another person. In other words, it is justifiable. In ethical philosophy, we need to use rational for our moral behaviour.
This is how philosophy is different from religion. The crucial point in ethics and morals is rationality. They only accept facts based on arguments. In order for an act to be right, it must be accompanied by logical reasons that is well understood and accepted by other people. In religion, immorality is a sin. In philosophy, it is considered as you breaking the ethical rules. This is known as inconsequential rationals. However, a religion philosopher will be influenced by his/her belief system. This is normal since other factors such as our socio-economic status, culture, and past experience determines our views of morality.
To conclude, religion is used as a guide to derive to ethical principles. Therefore, religion is not exclusively owned by ethics.
(Translated from: Bertens, K (2003) Etika dan Moral: Untuk Pengajaran Tinggi. Kuala Lumpur: Penerbit University Malaya.)
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2 comments:
I quote a friend here, “Morality and religion are not mutually exclusive". In a way yes, that may be true, but to a certain extent the basic fundamental concepts of morality stems from core values taken from each religion. The only difference here is, the way we justify our actions based on what we feel is moral and immoral versus what is sinful and well, not sinful. At the end of the day, like what you say morality is driven by a strong sense of values which is either brought on by religious beliefs or exposure to a range of different ideologies which essentially say the same thing- be good, for being good is the RIGHT thing to do. And ethics dictates why what we are doing is right/wrong. Since the words used in the Bible or Koran is a basic guideline for our moral behaviour, it would be safe to say that morality and religion is interrelated and drawing a line between the two would be quite difficult.
Agreed without hesitation.
All religions (not ajaran sesat) consist of moral guidance where it is related to ethics. However, each religion has different ways of solving problems. For instance, if we are to compile and observe all solutions from each religion regarding Euthanasia issue, it varies.
Some might say that it is possible and some might say it’s not.
I must say that most religions’ rules and regulations are not rigid. It can be overcome by something that has more priority. For example, telling lies to save someone’s life. In such situation, telling lies is approved. In other words, actions should be accompanied by good intentions and appropriate with the situation.
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