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Ethics: Can We Be Ethical Without Being Religious?

The document discusses ethics and whether ethics can exist without religion. It outlines that most religions have an ethical component and that ethics deals with concepts like right, good, and duty. It discusses the ancient Greek view of ethics focusing on "the good life." It then discusses Immanuel Kant's view that God is a requirement for ethics. It also notes that revealed religions prescribe clear rules. The document concludes by discussing the Golden Rule as a basic ethic across religions and how religion can provide moral guidance.

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Ngusha Ezekiel Boigongo
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60 views3 pages

Ethics: Can We Be Ethical Without Being Religious?

The document discusses ethics and whether ethics can exist without religion. It outlines that most religions have an ethical component and that ethics deals with concepts like right, good, and duty. It discusses the ancient Greek view of ethics focusing on "the good life." It then discusses Immanuel Kant's view that God is a requirement for ethics. It also notes that revealed religions prescribe clear rules. The document concludes by discussing the Golden Rule as a basic ethic across religions and how religion can provide moral guidance.

Uploaded by

Ngusha Ezekiel Boigongo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Ethics

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.

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.

Revealed religions 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 incapable of making ethical decisions
independently of their religious beliefs. 
Further, some of our 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, we 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, we should treat others the way we would want to be treated. This is
the basic ethic that guides all religions. If we do so, happiness will ensue.  

I’ve studied other religions and identified the following religious tenets that speak
to the Golden Rule

RITUAL

A ritual (or a rite) is a set of actions people do. In a ritual, the actions are important because every
action stands for something. Each ritual of a type is done in a certain way.[1][2] Danger might be
involved in carrying out the ritual. When the ritual has been performed successfully, it is often
followed by a celebration.
Rituals can mark a personal change. For example, a rite of passage may show that a child has
reached the age of majority. All societies seem to have had them.[3]
A religious rite is a religious ceremony. Many rituals have a religious significance and are part of the
religion or traditions of a community. The rite signals that those who take part are members of the
religion, or believers in the religion. The rite may
signal status, qualification, prayer and commitment to the god or to the belief.
A rite need not be to a religion as understood in the present day. Fervent support of a sports team,
or kissing the ring of an organised crime lord, or a military enrollment is equally a rite, because it has
consequences for the behaviour of the person, and for their beliefs.[4][5]
A ritual can also be linked to obsessive compulsive disorder, when a person believes that performing
the ritual again and again is necessary.
PRIEST
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a
mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to
administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities. Their
office or position is the 'priesthood', a term which also may apply to such persons collectively. A
priest may have the duty to hear confessions periodically, give marriage counseling, provide
prenuptial counseling, give spiritual direction, teach catechism, or visit those confined indoors, such
as the sick in hospitals and nursing homes

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