Religion and ethics

Ethics is one of the basic philosophical disciplines. It is also called moral philosophy. Besides philosophy, ethics and morality are often associated with religion; but the relationship between ethics and religion is a philosophical discussion in itself.

RELIGION AND ETHICS: CONSISTENCY OR CONFLICT?
The Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) is often quoted for saying, "If God is dead, everything is permitted." The idea behind the statement is that God is the basis of all morality, values and meanings of life, and if it was not for God, the world would be a hopeless and empty space and all actions would basically be meaningless. This view comes with many flavors, and is probably behind the widespread notion that if someone is looking for answers to ethical questions, it might be wise to look up a religious authority.

Nevertheless, philosophy has several objections to basing morality on religion: an act motivated by the desire to follow a religious command (a divine will, for instance), is morally worthless. If a person's only argument for not beating other people to death is that her religion forbids it, most people would probably hesitate to describe her as a good person.

Another objection can be traced back to Antiquity in an argument made by the Greek philosopher Plato (429 - 347 B.C.). The argument is called the Euthyphro-dilemma (named after a dialogue written by Plato) and wants to demonstrate that religion and ethics are actually two distinct entities.
If people doubt whether morality is based on Christianity, they might ask themselves a hypothetical question like: Would it still be wrong to murder an innocent person even if God does not exist?

Nevertheless, just because it is difficult to justify ethics by referring to religion, this does not mean that religions do not contain moral standards. Rather, ethics is a very important part of religious traditions. The ethical aspect can be either explicit in the form of divine commandments (the Ten Commandments) or metaphysical doctrines (the law of karma), or it can be more implicit by looking at rules of behavior, ways of life, and organization of society.
When the perception of moral norms is intimately intertwined with the religion in question, it means that it may be difficult to discuss moral norms without also discussing the religious content and it can make it difficult to question the religiously based morality. In a wider perspective, however, we know that the moral contents of religious traditions are constantly evolving – While some Christians, e.g. in Uganda and in the United States still think homosexuals ought be condemned and even punished because their sexuality is not just unnatural but also immoral and totally in conflict with the will of God, other Christians are very tolerant and some churches have introduced rituals for homosexual marriages. 

Whether a kind of moral or ethics may be called religious or non-religious therefore depends not so much on what it claims as on what kind of arguments it uses. There are arguments against abortion, based on religious arguments, but there are also arguments against abortion not based on religious arguments. Similarly, there are supporters of abortion among both religious and non-religious people. The primary difference between what might be called religious and non-religious morality is therefore not to be found in the points of view, but rather in the reasons given and the types of arguments used in a discussion. What characterizes secular ethics is that the arguments are not a part of a religious system. However, there are examples of ethical theories, where the religious and non-religious reasoning will reach identical results. A historical example: Thomas Aquinas (ca. 1225-1274) believed that people would reach the same standards of right and wrong, independent of whether the arguments built on reason, religion, or on revelation: "All that is true has its origins in the spirit," Thomas Aquinas said.

Examples of questions
What does it mean to be a good person?
Are there moral rules, which apply across societies, cultures and historical periods?
What does it mean to call something “good” or “evil”?
Do animal have any rights?
Should euthanasia be permitted?
Is religion an inviolable human right?

The euthyphro dilemma: what to choose?
A.  Is something morally right if it is religiously motivated?
B.  Is it religiously mandatory because it is morally right?
If B is chosen, it has been said that moral precedes the religious, and in that case, morality is not religion. So if you want to base morality on religion, you must choose A. Then a new problem arises: what if the religion ordered you to murder, plunder, and rape the innocent, would that be morally good? In this case, it seems to be completely random what is right and wrong, and that seems rather odd.  However, if you answer that your religion would never prescribe anything this evil, you have already established that your religion is morally good, and therefore a standard outside religion is essential. In this way, religion becomes redundant.