Religion and Morality

Watch

• The five major world religions - John Bellaimey ↗TED-Ed
• Ethical dilemma: Who should you believe? - Alex Worsnip ↗TED-Ed
• How Ethics Can Help You Make Better Decisions | Michael Schur | TED ↗TED
• Money, happiness and eternal life - Greed (1/2) | DW Documentary ↗DW Documentary
• Justice: What's The Right Thing To Do? Episode 01 "THE MORAL SIDE OF MURDER" ↗Harvard University

Read

• Euthyphro ↗This foundational dialogue poses the enduring Euthyphro dilemma, questioning whether actions are moral because gods command them, or if gods command them because they are inherently moral.Plato
• Mere Christianity ↗An accessible exposition of Christian moral thought, this work articulates a rational defence of universal moral laws and and their divine origin, a primer for the religiously inclined.C.S. Lewis
• The Brothers Karamazov ↗A literary colossus, this novel delves into the profound psychological and philosophical conflicts between faith, doubt, and moral responsibility, particularly in the absence of God.Fyodor Dostoevsky
• On the Genealogy of Morality ↗A trenchant critique of Western morality, this work provocatively traces the historical and psychological origins of concepts like good and evil, challenging their presumed universality and divine sanction.Friedrich Nietzsche
• The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values ↗This polemical work argues for a scientific basis for morality, positing that moral truths can be discovered through empirical inquiry, thereby divorcing ethics from religious dogma.Sam Harris

Voices to follow

• Karen Armstrong ↗Her extensive work illuminates the shared ethical core and historical evolution of major world religions, advocating for compassion as a universal moral imperative.Religious historian and author
• Jonathan Haidt ↗He offers profound insights into the psychological origins of moral intuitions, explaining how different moral foundations shape political and religious divides.Social psychologist and author, New York University
• Martha Nussbaum ↗Her rigorous philosophical inquiries explore the intersection of ethics, emotion, and justice, often drawing on ancient traditions to address contemporary moral challenges.Philosopher and author, University of Chicago
• Sam Harris ↗A prominent voice advocating for a scientific and secular basis for morality, challenging traditional religious claims while exploring the nature of consciousness and free will.Neuroscientist, philosopher, and author

Glossary

• ConscienceYour conscience is your inner feeling or voice that tells you if your actions are right or wrong. For example, your conscience might make you feel guilty if you secretly took a cookie without asking.
• DilemmaA dilemma is a situation where you have to make a difficult choice between two or more options, and often none of them are perfect. For example, if your friend asks you to lie for them, but you also believe in telling the truth, you're facing a moral dilemma.
• EmpathyEmpathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person. For example, if your friend is sad because their pet is sick, showing empathy means you can imagine how they feel and offer comfort.
• EthicsEthics is a set of rules or principles that guide how people or groups behave, often based on a system of beliefs. It's like the study of morality. For example, a school might have an ethics code that says students should not cheat on tests.
• IntegrityIntegrity means being honest and having strong moral principles, meaning you always do what you believe is right, even when no one is watching. For example, a student shows integrity by admitting they made a mistake on their homework, even if it means getting a lower grade.
• JusticeJustice means fairness in the way people are treated, especially when it comes to laws, rights, and punishments. For example, if everyone in a group project gets the same grade even though some people did more work, that might not feel like justice.
• MoralityMorality refers to the basic rules or beliefs about what is right and wrong, good and bad, that guide how people live. For example, knowing it's wrong to lie to your parents is part of your morality.
• PrincipleA principle is a basic rule or belief that guides your actions and decisions. For example, a principle you might live by is "treat others as you want to be treated."
• ReligionReligion is a system of beliefs and practices, often involving a god or gods, that can provide guidance on how to live a moral life. For example, many religions teach followers to be kind to others and help those in need.
• ValuesValues are the things you believe are important in life and that influence how you act. For example, if honesty is one of your values, you'll try to always tell the truth.
• ViceA vice is a bad or negative character trait or habit that is considered morally wrong. For example, greed is a vice because it means wanting too much for yourself without caring about others.
• VirtueA virtue is a good and positive character trait or quality that is considered morally good. For example, kindness is a virtue because it means being friendly and caring towards others.

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Where this connects to other fields, and why it's worth knowing.

• Dispute Resolution & Restorative Justice Law

  When a modern court sits a criminal down to face their victim, confess, apologize, and earn their way back in, it's running a script religions wrote thousands of years ago. Confession, atonement, forgiveness, welcome back, that's ancient church technology. Secular law just borrowed the machinery of forgiveness that faiths spent millennia perfecting.

• Technology Ethics & the Digital Society Technology

  A thinker named Bentham imagined a prison where one guard could watch any cell, but prisoners never knew when, so they behaved all the time, just in case. That's basically an all-seeing God who might be watching your every move. Modern surveillance runs on the same trick: you can't see the watcher, so you assume they're always there and police yourself.

• ESG and Corporate Social Responsibility Business

  Today companies talk about serving more than just profit. But religions were doing this centuries ago: banning loans-with-interest, forcing a day of rest, demanding a slice of income for the poor. Each rule was a way of telling the market it had to answer to something bigger than money.

• Genetic Engineering & CRISPR Health

  CRISPR lets doctors rewrite the DNA of an embryo like editing text. But many faiths see the body as a gift you're not supposed to redraft. So a medical fix can feel, to a believer, like scribbling over something sacred.

• Carbon Markets & Net Zero Environment

  Some companies pay for 'carbon offsets' so they can keep polluting and still feel clean. Centuries ago, people paid the church a fee to keep sinning and feel forgiven. Same deal: pay a price, feel absolved, change nothing.

• Economic Systems Economics

  Some early Protestants couldn't tell if they were saved, and it terrified them. So they worked hard and saved money, treating success as a sign of God's favor. That religious anxiety may have quietly grown into the money-making engine we call capitalism.

• The Global Debt Crisis Global Risks

  Long before banks, debt was a religious idea: ancient faiths ordered debts wiped clean in special 'jubilee' years and banned charging interest as a sin. So when people today rage about whether to forgive a country's loans, they're really arguing old religious morals dressed up as economics.

• Stoicism Philosophy

  The famous Serenity Prayer, said in churches and recovery meetings, is basically ancient Stoic advice in disguise. Early Christianity soaked up so much Stoic thinking that a philosophy written by a Roman slave now opens millions of prayers.

• The Trolley Problem Philosophy

  Pulling a lever to divert a runaway trolley feels different from shoving a man in front of it, even if both kill one to save five. That gut feeling comes straight from a medieval monk's rule: intending a death is worse than just foreseeing it. A 700-year-old theology is secretly running your moral instinct.