Religion and Morality.

I believe that morality does not need to be based just on religion although it plays a big part in it. This is a subject that confused me quite a bit because I am a very religious person.  "Whether or not religion keeps people in line is an interesting sociological question; most philosophers stay out of it." (Sandra Lafave) After doing a lot of research, I have a better understanding of how religion is involved in ethics.  Some people think that without religion there would be no ethics. Some people believe without Heaven and Hell, people would have no moral values. (Sandra Lafave)  Religion has an effect on people's values in many ways though.  The first three of the ten commandments focus on the supernatural (God) and the rest focus on the people. (Digital Textbook) I feel that the ten commandments play a huge part on how Christian people act.  Some Christians follow the ten commandments and base their entire moral values off them. There are many types of religions though with different rules, different morals, and different supernatural beings. Buddhist and muslims for example worship a whole different being. In the olden days, religion served as the most powerful way to get people to behave morally.  Today morality does not have to be religious.  In some ways religious people can be immoral and nonreligious people can be moral.  There are many arguements about this whole subject.  Some people in favor of capital punishment feel it would keep people in order. Athiests have moral values based on what they believe is right not what God says is right.  The natural law is another system that people base their morality off of.  What is just right according to nature could be all a person needs to be moral.  Other areas where a person can have moral values without religion is through oneself (individual) or social relations.  People individually act upon their own concience or through the relations of other people. My moral values however, are based off of religion of course.  Everything I do, every decision I make, and every act that affects another is all done after asking " what would Jesus do?"

Lafave, Sandra  West Valley College "Ethics and Religion"  April 27, 2005

http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/religion.htm