Where Values Come From Pertaining To Religion

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Where Values come from about Religion

Thequestion of whether or not morality needs religion is both ancient and topical. For the last decade, the relationship between morality and religion has been a contentious issue. Morality is described as the conduct, which guide people’s behavior CITATION Whi15 \p 21 \l 1033 (Whitehouse and McKay 21). The concept of moralitycan be regaaarded as values and they are act as a benchmark to behavior. Research indicates that philosophers and religious leaders have had divergence opinions on morality, with philosophers arguing that morality exists as an independent entity and, therefore, can exist without God CITATION Whi15 \l 1033 (Whitehouse and McKay). It is strong believed among the early philosopher that morality could exit without God. Some philosophers argue that community, families, and the environment dictates the moral behavior of a person. Therefore, the state, community and family set the moral standard which is practiced. However, morality cannot exist without God. The moral standards are religious driven, and therefore, all aspects of morality being practiced in any society are religiously guided, and therefore, though the community, state, and other parties set the standard, these moral standards are borrowed from religious books and teachings, it is therefore evident that morality cannot exist without God.

Although the polemic investigation on the relationship between morality and religion have produced mixed results, studies have concluded that morality standards are borrowed from religious teachings. According to McKinon (7), morality is driven by religious ethics and values that guide most societies. Moral standards can be traced from the arc of Moses when Good gave Moses the Ten Commandments to give to the Israelites (Hare 21). It has been argued that it was the foundation of the moral laws. Therefore, the assumption that God gave the moral laws Moses could be true. Throughout the book of Exodus, we are told about Moses' Journey and the punishment which were given to Israelites for their immoral behavior. It is pointed out that the immoral act portrayed by the Israelites was due to lack of moral standards and therefore, the ten commandments were issued to set the standard. Though it has been argued that morals existed before the ten commandments and even non-believers have morals, all tbe morals are reflected from the bible and other religious books. Whitehouse and McKay(35) argued that atheists and non-believers agreed that nmorality has a foundation. Most of them believed that stealing, raping, and other immoral as decribed in the bible and other religious books are true. This is a confirmation that religion is the foundation of morals and therefore, without God, morality cannot exist.

Moral values come from religion. According to CITATION Loi45 \l 1033 (Larry) God commanded us to things we do because they are right. Therefore, because command us to things, then those things are right. God is the creator and cannot command us to do the wrong thing. The divine command theory states that Good would love to see us do the right things every day. It is pointed out that God as a creator, wants the best for us and, therefore, and he cannot command us to do wrong things. This is because God wants the best for us and would want to have harmony and peace. It is also pointed out that God ask us to do a thing with a purpose and God’s purpose cannot be wrong. It is also pointed out that God decides to command things because He believed those are the right things that we are supposed to do CITATION Whi15 \p 12 \l 1033 (Whitehouse and McKay 12). It is through a command that God shows us direction on what he requires us to do in life and remain peaceful and harmony. Thus the God’s command could not be wrong. God gives us direction on what to do and when to do it. In this aspect, we get God’s command more often to allow us to lead to a better life. Without getting God’s commands, it would be difficult to have a proper direction, and therefore, the behavior of people would be immorality wrong.

The divine command theory explained that right or wrong cannot be illustrated without God’s commands. All the facts on values and morals cannot be completed without the aspect of religion. According to the devine command theory, God commands help us to respond to objectively to nurture and other matters and therefore, God cannot command us to commit murder. But some philosophers against the divine command argue that if one commit murder, then that person is fulfilling the command of God CITATION JOH14 \p 21 \l 1033 (HARE 21). Therefore, in this case, murder is morally right. They further argue that the aspect of good or wright depends on whether God has issued the commandment and when a murder occurs, we believe God has issued a command for such to take place. In this case, it has been argued morality is based on several aspects whether driven by divine command, biblical or other forms, there is a unifying factors which is used to determine whether something is wrong or good. In this case, what makes something morally right is based on the believe, environment where people lived and the laws of the land.

As stated by Whitehouse and McKay(23), if the aspect of God and religions are removed, then morality would not exist. Whitehouse and McKay (24) argued that wrong or good are judged based on some benchmarks, and without God and religion, there would be no benchmark to use to determine whether someone as done wrong or good. The existence of Good provide a measurement of values, moral standards because it can be stated that killing is wrong in the eyes of God, and therefore, noone should commit murder. Though argument has been made that murder and other wrongful acts are written in the constitutions and the aspect of wrong or bad are committed against the state. It is vivid that most of the constitution from around the world are written based on certain religious practices. In Islam territories, the Quran is the principal reflections of wrong, and any wrong deeds are committd against the Quran CITATION Pet172 \p 25 \l 1033 (McKinon 25). However, regions dominated by Christians Bible are used as the references point. It shows clearly that constitutions and other written and unwritten laws used to provide guidance are written based on God’s teachings. It is evident that religion is the foundation of morality and it set the moral standards which are practiced in society and therefore, religion is the foundation of morality.

Phisophers have made different arguments and there are some who believed that morality and religion are, and therefore, without God, morality cannot exist. Socrates, one of the known philosophers of the early days, argued that goods love goodness, and therefore, it is good whether goodness whether good because God loves it. Though it is believed that morality is dictated by several factors, If God does not exist, then everything would be permitted. However, morality cannot exist without God because of the morals which are applied as guiding principals are reflected from religious teachings; therefore, values, morality come from are about religion. Plato made a fantastic argument regarding the morality. He pointed out that people love holy and holy love people and therefore, people believe in holy, and any command issue by holy is respected and must be done CITATION Whi15 \p 21 \l 1033 (Whitehouse and McKay 21). However, Plato went futher to ask if God selects us what to do because he loved us or we only love God because he is holy. Plato tends to disagree with the divine command theory regarding the fact God commands us to do things. It is argued that threats put some standard of goodness or holiness, and can it be argued that threats are acts of God or signs of holiness. Plato concludes that Good obligation depends on an individual standard of goodness, which is independent of God. But there is nothing which can be said about goodness.

In conclusion, morality cannot exist without Good and religion is the foundation of moral standards that we use in society. Though it has been argued that moral standard is set bu the state and other actors, the research betablished that the state and other actors depend on the religious practices and books to draft the laws of the land. It is also established that God’s commands are important and therefore, God gives us command because He wants us to succeed, be happy and harmy and therefore, morality is driven by God’s standards. It is also established that God guides us in making decisions and other areas which are morality guided. The principals of morality is therefore depended on the belief in an individual. It is also established that philosophers have divergence views on matters of morality and therefore, good or wrong depends on society.

Works Cited

BIBLIOGRAPHY HARE, JOHN E. "Divine Command Theory and moral obligation." https://blog.oup.com/2016/02/divine-command-theory/ (2014): 2-35.

Larry, Loice Markson. "MORALITY AND RELIGION." https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/morality-and-religion (2-45): 2017.

McKinnon, Peter. "Moral Arguments for the Existence of God." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2017): 2-15.

Whitehouse, Harvey and Ryan McKay. "Religion and Morality." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4345965/ 21.4 (2015): 2-35.