RELIGION and DIVINE COMMAND ETHICS

 

Ethics and Religion:

 

Moral issues and religious belief are related in several positive ways.

 

•   First,  they  are  shaped  over  time  from  the  central  moral  values  of  major  world religions.

•  Second,  religiouviews often support moral responsibility  by providing  additional motivation for being moral.

Third, sometimes religions set a higher moral standard than is conventional.

 

Societies often benefit  from  a variety of religions  that makprominent  particular virtues, inspiring their members to pursue them beyond what is ordinarily seen as morally obligatory.

 

 

Divine Command Ethic:

 

 

•   This says that an act which is right is commanded by god and the one which is wrong is forbidden by God.

•    The difficulty in this is to know precisely what Gods commands are and in knowing whether God exists.

 

 

We can view that moral reasons are not reducible to religious matters, although religious belief may provide an added inspiration for responding to them.