Relationships between religion and morality - Essay Example

The paper “Relationships between Religion and Morality" is a brilliant version of an essay on philosophy. Religion has so much to do with morality but it also has to do with social norms and the form of society. The perception that morality relies on religion holds that the absence of religion means that there would be no morality since moral codes emanate from religion, and moral views are judged against standards drawn by religious education or teachings. Moral opinions and actions are judged correct or wrong depending on whether it follows or contravenes God’s teaching, religious leaders, religious traditions, or religious texts.

Therefore, some religious leaders emphasize more on a central source of leadership and authority over another. For instance, evangelical Christians dwell much on authority of the bible teachings while Muslims tend to dwell on the teachings contained in the Quran (Wainwright 52). It is significant to note that secular world looks towards religion in order to make moral judgment on some issues such as war and abortion. Although some religious moral teachings are not adopted by the secular world, the expectation that religion offers something special about moral behavior implies that there is s strong view that morality and religion are connected in a positive manner.

Both religion and morality incorporate the element of individual relativism. In this case, individual Relativism refers to an ethical conjecture to the effect that the wrongness or rightness of an action depends wholly on the principles of the actor. When a person takes action for personal gain, the person is not worthy of moral praise since the action is a self-centered, not a moral action. The action was not done as a morally proper thing; it was done for gain purposes. Goodman argues that actions done for individual gain do not merit moral praise.

Therefore, according to Goodman, actions done from an ethically proper intention are worth of moral praise. Inspiration for actions and makes a decision that they do not qualify as moral motivations. For example, an action done to make money is not morally inspired (Sacks 25).Relativism has become widespread in our economy, society, and schools. Society cannot continue to exist in an atmosphere where everybody does what is right in his eyes. Lack of a common foundation of absolutes and truth, our cultural backgrounds will become feeble.

Nonetheless, there is validity to certain aspects of relativism. What one society regard as right, another society may regard as wrong (Audra 56). The rearing of children could be an example; another example would be driving of vehicles where drivers are allowed to be on the right side of the road and others are taught to be on the left side of the road. These wrong and right ways are not set to be unbending whatsoever, nor are they consequential from a supreme rule of behavior. Their relativism is appropriately asserted as such.

It does not matter the side of the road that we drive, but it matters that we do it in the same way.