Religion and Ethics Essay
The Elements of Moral Philosophy (1)
Ethics or morality refers to the norms by which the society expects us to live. Religion or faith in a higher deity is a set of beliefs that leans towards teaching its adherents morality or ethics in deference to the deity. This paper considers the two case scenarios of (i) John Doe who is sterile and wants to clone himself, and (ii) Jane Doe who is eighteen and attracted to other females (lesbian). Two questions will be addressed with regard to the above two situations. These are the relation between ethics and religion on the one hand; and the determination of the ethical and unethical paths of conduct in both situations. Religion and Ethics Essay.
The Case of John Doe
John Doe is sterile and cannot find any woman who is ready to marry him. He does not want to adopt a child who will not be his biologically and has resorted to cloning himself to get a twin with his exact genetic blueprint. John’s situation brings into question the relationship between religion and morality/ ethics. This is because almost all religions without exception do not accept the possibility of cloning for reproductive purposes as this role is reserved for the deity worshipped in all of these religions (Iwuagwu, 2018; Häyry, 2018). According to Iwuagwu (2018), morality may be considered as a subset or philosophy of religion. It is the duality of wrong and right which is the essence of religion. For instance, in this case the Christian religion and worldview would be of the opinion that cloning is unethical since only God has the power to give life and also to take it. Just like abortion is murder, so is cloning for reproduction “unauthorized” asexual reproduction. The ethical path of conduct in this case of John Doe would therefore be to adopt a child and forget about cloning. Religion and Ethics Essay. The paths that would be unethical would be to go ahead with the cloning to get his biological “twin”. Viewed from an ethical subjectivism or nihilism standpoint, however; cloning would not necessarily be the unethical path since there is no “right” (nihilism) and the consideration of cloning as unethical would be just a subjective opinion of some (Rachels & Rachels, 2019).
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The Case of Jane Doe
Jane Doe has reached the age of consent as she is now eighteen years old. She is sexually attracted to the female gender but her family is religious and their religion forbids lesbianism. She is torn between telling her parents about her sexual orientation and making her own independent decision on the matter since she is now an adult. A stated above, the relation between ethics and religion is that the former is a subset of the latter. From this standpoint, it would therefore seem that Jane’s parents’ religion would hold sway as the point of reference for ethical behavior. That would mean that what the religion condemns (lesbianism) is outright unethical. Some sections of the American population that are not Evangelical Christians in particular have a tolerant view towards same sex relationships and marriages. However, almost all the religious denominations including those that are somewhat tolerant such as the Catholics consider same sex relations immoral and unethical (Rachels & Rachels, 2019; Morini, 2017). Given the above school of thought, the ethical path for Jane would be to get a boyfriend and desist from having a girlfriend as a sexual partner. Of course, the unethical path would be to get into a same sex relationship with a girl.Religion and Ethics Essay. Nihilism and ethical subjectivism would however give her a free hand to choose what she personally thinks is moral or ethical. This is because ethical conduct or morality is essentially a subjective opinion and everyone has their own opinion of what is ethical and what is not. Nihilism states that there is essentially no absolute “right’ or “wrong” (Rachels & Rachels, 2019).
Conclusion
Ethics and religion have for generations been seen as having a close relationship from the mere fact that religion is supposed to direct believers to make the right life decisions. However, the notion of what is “wrong” or “right” may just be a subjective opinion according to the philosophy of ethical subjectivism. In any case, nihilism states that there is actually nothing that is “right” or “wrong”.
References
Häyry, M. (2018). Ethics and cloning. British Medical Bulletin, 128(1), 15-21. https://doi.org/10.1093/bmb/ldy031
Iwuagwu, E.K. (2018). The relationship between religion and morality: On whether the multiplicity of religious denominations have impacted positively on socio-ethical behavior. Global Journal of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, 6(9), 42-53. Religion and Ethics Essay.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328268475_The_Relationship_Between_Religion_and_Morality_On_Whether_the_Multiplicity_of_Religious_Denominations_have_Impacted_Positively_on_Socio-Ethical_Behavior
Morini, M. (2017). Same-sex marriage and other moral taboos: Cultural acceptances, change in American public opinion and the evidence from the opinion polls. European Journal of American Studies, (special issue). https://doi.org/10.4000/ejas.11824
Rachels, J., & Rachels, S. (2019). The elements of moral philosophy, 9th ed. McGraw Hill Education. Religion and Ethics Essay.