My Take on the Religion and Ethics Debate

Since there was not reading posted for the week so far, I wanted to talk about the religion and ethics debate/discussion which we held in class on Friday. The source which I was assigned had to do with religion being enhanced by and supported by ethics and moralities of society. In the reading, the speaker defined five separate arguments to back up his overall theory of ethics being able to enhance religion in humanity. The argument I find to be most persuasive is the argument that every individual will get what they deserve based off of the quality of their morality throughout their lifetime as that is a motivation to understand religion and use it in the name of morality and goodness as it individually applies to one being and presents a conflict (hard but moral, or easy but unjust) which we are all familiar with; it does not look at humanity as a whole, but rather the individual as a whole which makes it more convincing and compelling to understand and apply to real life. The argument I find to be least persuasive is the one regarding God treating all creations equally, and therefore equality and morality must be implemented in society to honor that. I say this because every individual, regardless of religion, has their own interpretation of God or divinity, and it cannot be a universal concept which applies to all of humanity regarding God as a motivation to be moral. Creation, being part of religion and God varied belief systems is something unique to the individual, and merely saying that God created equality and it must be sustained is not enough of a driving force or motive to act moral on behalf of something interpretative, unproved, and undetermined! 

When we discussed in our small groups about our individual assigned arguments, all of their back up and support, and the validity of them, and surprisingly I found mine the most valid and meaningful to my individual life and throughout history. I began by asking my group if and how religion and ethics are interrelated with each other at all throughout history. What I discovered was that the two had come into contact with each other, and either one may have been a result of the other, but realistically, they are entirely different things. Here’s my point of view: religion is something that applies to an entire part of humanity, making the individual part of something bigger than itself because it applies and subjects to so many people, so equally. Ethics, on the other hand, is something completely defined by the individual as there cannot and has not been a system of morals and ethics to which everyone is subjected to like a religion; even if everyone were subject to it, that subjection would be far from equal as some would impose their morals/ethics more intensely and efficiently than others as rationally some would reject and neglect them--you can’t do that with a religion. Also, ethics are determined by the individual for that very individual because every person in history has an internal set of morals which they subject themselves to but not others, that would not be reasonable or moral (irony intended)! So, maybe an individual’s system of ethics and moral code can be influenced by or structured based off of one’s religious affiliations and practices as religion does incorporate ethical and moral themes, suggestions, and reasoning (lessons) within itself, but by no means would religion dictate and set those morals in place for the individual because like I stated before, ethics stem from the individual and his/her surroundings, upbringing, environment, etc.; moral are not determined communally or generally as opposed to religion which is imposed in a much more general, interpretative sense. Therefore, I find it somewhat irrational and meaningless to discuss or debate over these three different arguments (religion needs ethics, ethics needs religion, or religion enhances ethics) as religion has absolutely no affiliations with religion whatsoever! It is merely an internal tool(s) which individuals use to enhance their lives as they act according to reason and standards composed by themselves, and because that individual set of ethics enhances life, it would reasonably effect one’s religion/religious experience. In this way, ethics are able to/are used to increase or strengthen one’s religious experiences and practices as they are merely a set of tools used to live one’s life, religious or not.