The Relationship Between Morality and Religion. Essay

What is the relationship between religion and morality? It is in my opinion that religion is dependant on morality and not the other way around. Through this, it can be stated that morality reinforces the development and evolution of religion. In this essay, I shall show that this is the case drawing from theories proposed by Plato, Kant and Berg. According to Jonathan Berg, â€Å"†¦a way to construe ethics as depending on religion would be on the basis of a ‘Divine Command Theory’ of ethics, identifying the moral good with God’s Will or with what God commands.†(1) So then, if one were to link doing good as essentially doing God’s will, does this mean that one must always obey God’s will eventhough it may not seem to be a good act to us?†¦show more content†¦Which shows that without religion, or rather, without the belief that there is a God who punishes the evil-doer and rewards the good in the afterlife, there would be no reason to comply with a set of moral rules, as given by Berg, which says that â€Å"†¦God‘s approval (or disapproval) is the only reason for being moral.†(5). According to Harry Browne â€Å"†¦if the Unselfishness ideal is sound, there must be something unworthy in seeking to live your life as you want to live it.† Therefor e, if happiness in one’s life is difficult to seek due to the demands of morality and being unselfish, why would one be motivated to perform moral acts, unless of course, one shall be rewarded after death with the promise of paradise or the gift of being reincarnated as a human again. So, this motivation to perform virtuous acts is mainly because there is a religion that provides the followers with a reward at the end. However, can it not also be said that religion was created as a means of asserting the importance of morality? 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