Essay on Interrelationship Between Morality and Religion – The sanction and authority behind each one of them are also different. Behind the religious standards there is divine authority and the sanction of God.
Disobedience of religious standard is believed to result in incurring the displeasure of God. Hence the violation of laws of religion is considered a ‘sin’.
But the authority and sanction behind morality is society itself. It is not divine. Morality defines our conduct towards fellow beings and not towards the God. Morality does not require any external sanction. Its sanction is internal. Its disobedience incurs the displeasure of the society and not that of the God.
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Interrelationship between the Two:
However, religion and morality are closely interrelated. Religion prescribes rules of conduct and in so doing it tends to identify these with moral conduct. In fact, each religion has a code of conduct of its own which is very often based on moral values. Many times, moral standards draw their support from religion itself.
The moral and the religious standards are interlinked. If the moral standards are addressed to man directly the religious standards are addressed to him indirectly. The violation of moral codes will have direct consequences to man whereas the disobedience of the religious code or standards will have indirect consequences, in the sense it is believed to incur the wrath of God.
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The disobedience of the moral code results in societal disapproval. Benjamin Kidd and C.S. Lewis have remarked that the moral standards cannot have any meaning without the support of religion. In the words of Mathew Arnold, “Religion is morality touched with emotion”. F.H. Bradley writes. “It is a moral duty not be immoral and that is the duty to be religious”.