Iris Murdoch: The Morality Of Religion

In the article “God and Morality” by Caroline Wilkerson, Wilkerson questions whether or not one’s ethics are independent of religion, pondering if it is just a man man-made concept focused on goals like survival and reproduction. Wilkerson attempts to explain that the moral codes that a particular religious god encourages others to follow may be in fact “arbitrary” based on her reading of Plato’s dialog Euthyphro. In the end, she concludes by saying that even though a god’s moral code may be “erratic,” it is better to follow their moral code rather than following what society considers to be

Religion is Lost Children are capable of phenomenal potential. However, for many children this potential was never achieved. Their flame of life was blown out, along with millions of other children. Jews knew that death would be coming, and their fate was inevitable. Nobel Peace Prize winner, Elie Wiesel, was able to escape death.

The church’s unwillingness to involve themselves in the conversation and active efforts to cease AIDS’ increasing stake on lives, fails to live up to their roles as empathetic followers of Christ. However, much of this hesitance stems from the Bible’s direct claims that condemn homosexuality and those living in what the church deems a “sinful” life, whom God punishes with sickness, poverty, and ultimate suffering, as this only justifies this inactiveness. The church fails to save lives as much as it claims to save souls in an institution that historically prides itself in combatting oppression and restoring justice, especially from the African American church, although seeming to fail in restoring dignity. “If God’s relationship with humanity is persuasive, that characteristic should be the model for our own interpersonal relationships” because lives should not be lost from lack of intervention, resulting from the church’s condemnation of participating in intense and joyous activities, like sex and drug use, subjecting many of these followers to hypocrisy (Shelp and Sunderland 74). Sexually explicit education should have been enforced in a society where religious conservatism creates a barrier in combatting the spread of this disease, a disease like any other disease.

Bill Maher, a famous comedian, starred in and narrated the film Religulous, from which he expressed his utter disbelief in the blind faith people possessed through their religion. Maher makes a cogent and strong inductive argument when making the conclusion that religion is dangerous (Maher, 2008). Religion can either bring out the worst in people, or the best and sadly, religion is often times responsible for massacres, terrorism, and death. When people lack the critical thinking skills to challenge their faith, people become blind slaves to their religion and any influence thought to be stronger than one’s own.

Many Christians give their reason for not accepting gay marriage to be ‘it says so in the Bible.' The Bible also states “But if this thing be true, and

Morality is a huge topic that is criticized by society in everyday

Moral is a strange thing, it effects the way we act and reach. It effects what we think about others and were we draw the line. Moral is a concept of what is wrong and what is right when it comes to many things. Most of the time we have the same morals, most people consider murder wrong, but sadly, we do not all have the same morals. Morals can be something more personal and therefor they can differ.

There is no objectivity to the idea of morality; it differs from person to person. For instance, one individual could believe that theft is wrong, however, another individual could very well believe that theft is completely fine. If the general public’s image of what’s right and wrong, then it’s ludicrous

It does not remove religious belief as a ‘rhetorical public expression’ or personal preference but removes religion as the ‘determent of social action,’ (Hammond, 1985, p. 19). In fact, religion has not declined entirely. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports growth in individuals marking ‘no religion,’ rising from 15 per cent in 2001 to 25 per cent in 2011. Also, a slight decline in Christian religions was marked, reducing from 68 per cent in 2001 to 61 per cent in 2011, however still remaining the most common religion in Australia. However, a rise in non-Christian religions is evident with Islam comprising of 2.2 per cent of the population, Buddhism of 2.5 per cent and Hinduism of 1.3 per cent 2011 with Hinduism presenting as the most rapidly growing religion in Australia (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012).

Richard Taylor, an ethicist said, “Contemporary writers in ethics, who blithely discourse upon moral right and wrong and moral obligation without any reference to religion, are truly just weaving intellectual webs from thin air; which amounts to saying that they discourse without meaning (Ethics, Faith, and Reason 7).” Does this effect that religion is the only way to explain morality? Friedrich Nietzsche would argue that morality itself wasn’t necessary. Mere Cardus said, “Envy is – Nietzsche recognized – an essential part of life. Yet the lingering effects of Christianity generally teach to feel ashamed of our envious feelings.

Religions tend to do this by asking their members to donate to a certain cause that their church supports, like donating to the poor, or helping feed the homeless, and other things that churches tend to get their members to participate in. In an article titled “Does Religion make us moral?” by Connor Wood, Wood states, “By demanding that people participate in costly, often painful rituals, religious groups ensure that their members have a strong motivation to stay involved and contribute economic and social resources to the group.” Which is another way religions play a role in people having good morals. By getting their members to contribute in things that they most likely would not feel obligated to participate in if they had not belonged to that

After a few years of being in the first stage I was in the dogmatic faith stage. In this stage, I was applying myself ceaselessly to earning the love and approval of the Supreme Being (Gold, 2010). I thought I was doing the work of the lord and that if I did that I would be an important person for it. I never wanted to do the wrong thing and even was very over worried about my sexual behaviors or openness to start doing things in that realm as a high school student. At the same time, I think that church was a good and stable place for me to be at that time regardless, but looking back it seems to be a pretty foolish way of thinking that it was the only way to do right in the world.

Shinto Demographical Information Shintoism is a religion that originated in the country of Japan. It dates back to 660 B.C and is loosely practiced by the people of Japan but there are people in North America who practice Shinto as well. For a religion only practiced in Japan it has been greatly influenced by other nations on the world. The religion itself dates back thousands of years. Buddhism and Shintoism share a few similarities as these two religions dominate in Japan.

Richard Taylor, an ethicist said, “Contemporary writers in ethics, who blithely discourse upon moral right and wrong and moral obligation without any reference to religion, are truly just weaving intellectual webs from thin air; which amounts to saying that they discourse without meaning (Ethics, Faith, and Reason 7).” Does this effect that religion is the only way to explain morality? Friedrich Nietzsche would argue that morality itself wasn’t necessary. Merce Cardus said, “Envy is – Nietzsche recognised – an essential part of life. Yet the lingering effects of Christianity generally teaches to feel ashamed of our envious feelings.

Appealing to the relative whims of society or personal preferences doesn’t provide satisfying answers. A better response to the question necessitates that an individual have: (1) an unchanging standard he can turn to, and (2) an absolute authority by which proper moral obligation and be defended. Without these, morals/ethics simply becomes emotionally based preferences. Rape, for example, can never be deemed wrong; the strongest statement that can be made about rape is “I don’t like it.”