Religion, Morality, and the Good Life

organized religion, Morality, and the Good Life Does piety depend on godliness? some confide the fundamental aspects of holiness and religion join to breed the basis on how nonp aril chooses to live their life. Some would define soundeousness as a system we humans use to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong. Morality could derive from a number of different f pr make believeiceors including, religion, culture, and upbringing. Those that believe that lessonity derives from religion or paragons commands trust in the presage sway possibleness.The divine Command system is the idea that godliness is symbiotic on god that is moralistic bargain be determined by their obedience to Gods commands. This possible action has been and probably allow for continue to be controversial to many. Morality must(prenominal) take aim a purely secular foundation. Although religion expertness non be the concrete basis for ethical motive, it is certain that religion i s needed sometime when dealings with specific aspects of godliness. There ar 2 types of morality, justified and unjustified. justify morality is common sense and does non require intense interpretation.For object lesson, Do not steal is a justified moral command because when genius steals they are bringing evil to someone and that is guilty. Unjustified morals are much harder to find reason for than justified morals which bottomland be easily justified by common knowledge. Do not lead sex forrader marriage, is an example of an unjustified morality. It is difficult to explain wherefore doing the act is immoral. This moral standard is irrational in that there is no reasonable retort why one should not do this act in position to remain moral.Religion comes in handy when dealing with blue-eyed(a) areas of morality. Those grey areas are known as the unjustified moral commands or unjustified morality. Given the example for an unjustified moral command, one could answer the question Why should I not do this in order to remain moral, by expression it is immoral to have sex before marriage because God commanded us not to because he will vindicate one who does not follow his commandments. There is no central maltreat because if this action but ones self-interest or timidity of Gods wrath will keep one from committing this immoral act.The use of God and religion to justify these issues is plainly useful when dealing with a God-fearing and moral soul. Although using religion with morality, in this case, whitethorn cause one to agree that morality needs religion and that the shaper Command system explains why, it does not justify that religion is the basis for morality. ar right and wrong actions commanded by God? The Divine Command Theory states that proper and bad are created by God, not by humans. It has been illustrated that the Divine Command Theory cannot be logically true.The Divine Command Theory states that if God commands A, his commands by itself are sufficient to make A good. A is good just means A is commanded by God. Gods commands are good simply because God commands it. If there were no God, or if God did not issue any commands, then there would be no such thing as moral right or wrong. However, if actions are good on their own without influence from God, then the Divine Command Theory is false because it is graphicly commanded that we do things which are good and avoid those in which we know to be wrong.Ones belief in the existence of a god or gods may cause one to believe that morality dupes Gods existence. Their beliefs fulfillm to give their lives routine and clear understanding. In Genesis 127 it sound outs, So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them male and female he created them. (NIV) According to Christianity, God created us in his likeness as to fulfill the plan or purpose that he had intended for us. With this idea, the Catholic Church developed the concept o f natural fair play.This natural law concept stated that by working out what ones purpose is, we will be able to see how we should act and/or behave it would be apparent in the way in which we have been designed. Within the Catholic Church, the Popes condemnation of homoeroticism is an example of the natural law theory at work. The natural conduce to sex is conception, and any other sexual act that is not ready(prenominal) to this possibility would be an immoral rejection to the plan God had intended for them. It is straightforward that this natural law approach to ethics can cause controversy.It might be perceived as a poor imitation of morality in that it fails to provide justification for many basic moral principles. The speculate link between God and morality provides the idea because God is all-powerful and our creator we have an obligation to go after his commands. With him being our creator, we owe him our existence. Many ask the obvious question, Why do we have this o bligation? Although this opine has not stood up to reflection, people once believed that children owed the act of obedience to their parents only because children depended on their parents. This view is remarkably similar to the reasoning given for feudalism.In feudalism, in exchange for the protection of the lord, the vassal would give some sort of divine service to the lord. The obligation between the lord and the vassal regarding the fief or bolt down forms the basis of the feudal relationship. The weakness in this political system was that the vassals never agreed to this plan. By answering the above question in saying that our obligation to obey Gods command is because obedience is chastely right, the assumption has been made that morality exists independently of God. Why things are right in the first place is justified and explained by the Divine Command Theory.The Divine Command Theory shows an apparent resemblance to the natural law approach as discussed just before. Rat her than focusing on features of his simulated creation as with the natural law theory, the Divine Command Theory implicates a focus on Gods orders. An obvious example of Gods orders would be the Ten Commandments. The most common expostulation to this approach is that it makes morality seem somewhat subjective. It implies the theoretical likelihood of infraction being right simply because God commands this. Some may say that God would never command such an act as rape. God has not, in fact, commanded that rape is good.Assuming that the Divine Command Theory is, in fact, true, it would see Gods goodness in that he will not do anything wrong. But it does not follow that he wont be unjust or cruel. As long as he is not violating any of his commands, no matter what God does, he will not be doing anything wrong. God is omniscient and morally perfect. Surely this gives us exact reason to why we ought to obey his commands. Gods moral perfection, after all, guarantees that he will issue only those commands that he debates are right. His overall insight and expertise assures that he will never be wrong in what he believes is right to command of us.It sees God as the highest possible moral guide, giving us reason to always obey his commands. Although this is correct, it does not support the Divine Command Theory. To argue this point is to assume that the greater moral quality is dependent of Gods will, in which the basis for what he commands is. Some thinkers like Immanuel Kant and John Newman, just to lift a few, have argued that a sense of conscience is evidence of God. With morality and religion being independent of one another, the independence is considered to be congenial with the existence of God.If we accept that the existence of conscience assumes a being to whom we owe responsibility, God would seem like the only candidate. He is the only person with omnipotent power to see and judge our every action. Newman furthered this thought by asking why people w ould feel guilty if they did not think they were being watched. In conclusion, there is something wrong with every way of linking morality to religion. I am not claiming that religion cannot have things to say close to morality or that it is incapable of helping people do what is morally right.Instead, my claim is that ethics is enhanced with a religiously neutral foundation. Religion can be defined a set of practices independent of a belief system. Religion is the way in which you worship. Some people have participated in religious worship for a while without giving a great deal of thought to a belief system. Morality can be based on religion, but it also can be independent of ones religion or faith. Although it is possible to chequer a religion and not prevent to any strong moral principles and vice versa for holding just moral principles, many people hold religious and moral principles.As with Christianity, religion is doing what you are told to do regardless of what is right, and morality is doing what is right regardless of what you are told to do. Although morality and religion are employ at times to justify one another, they are not dependent of one another. . Works Cited Genesis 1 NIV The Beginning In the generator God Bible Bible Gateway. Web. 15 Apr. 2013 <http//www. biblegateway. com/passage/? search= multiplication+1&version=NIV>. The Internet Classics Archive Euthyphro by Plato. The Euthyphro. N. p. , n. d. Web. 15 Apr. 2013