Religion and morality

Religion and morality are closely connected. What is good is also willed by God. The fulfillment of god’s will and the performance of moral action therefore are two aspects of the same process. Both morality and religion are internal and concerned with a higher law which stands over and above the sphere of the state and outside state control. Morality prepares the way for the perpetuation of religious beliefs while religion reinforces morality with its supernatural sanctions. Salvation and blessedness are interpreted in terms of the individual’s relation to the moral ideals. Moral values arrived at by man in the course of living are appropriated by and incorporated into religion. By incorporating these values, religion strengthens and returns them to the people in refined and crystallized form. According to Maclver religion and morality arise simultaneously and that they have always reinforced each other. But there are thinkers like Spencer, Russel, Huxley and Charles Bougle who opine that religion and morality do not go hand in hand and that one should be dissociated from the other. According to them religion and morality had independent origins.

They asserted that the ethical code can develop best and be most effective when separated from religion. It can understand by the fact that an act may be morally wrong while religiously right .Sometimes religion inspires conduct detrimental to social interests. Some practices like untouchability allowed by religion may not be allowed by morality. Likewise not all the moral values are embodied in religion. Moral laws are based on rational judgment while religion is predominantly emotional and non-rational.