The role of religion in the formation of ethical values

[Thats my opinion]

This is a complex subject properly addressed only in long narratives. In just a few paragraphs, however, I hope to spell out an overly simplistic perspective. In subsequent postings I want to offer some examples. But now the theory.

To get to the fundamental issue: What we know as the good—the right way to live, does not come down from the sky as some sort of divine revelation, but comes up from human experience. RELIGION LIES IN THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF THESE VALUES AND A WAY BY WHICH THEY CAN BE TRANSMITTED FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION. Assume that there are people in most societies at their best who discover that love is better than hate, justice better than injustice, peace better than war—just to name three. How does recognition of these values arrive? Over time it is discovered that these ways to live are basically matters of social survival. They provide better security for everybody. These values are generated out of experience. Somebody gets the notion! What we call revelation comes up from human experience and from the very processes of nature. Indeed, what we call God may be the very processes of history and of nature.

In religious language we affirm that this is the way God works. It first occurs when somebody gets the idea that for the survival of the family, the clan, the village there are simple rules of life that need to be enshrined for the common good. Somebody sees beyond the immediate to the larger implications of how to live together. This always takes place in the midst of the human inclination toward selfishness, “where’s mine,” if your enemy is hungry starve him—or kill him. It is not necessarily human nature to be loving, just or peaceful, and there are institutions which further war, injustice and hatred. Often religious institutions embody the opposite of the ethical norms cited above. They can be exclusive, self-centered, warlike, and bigoted. They become part of the problem, not part of the answer. Their gods are the sole possession of the cult or clan. They are war gods. They are narrow, selfish and used to wall out everyone else, or condemn them to hell. They usually see god as some powerful person out there, whose only role is to take care of them. This perspective is what always gives religion a bad name.

But back to the values. Unless they are institutionalized they do not get carried from one generation to the next. RELIGION IS THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF THESE ETHICAL VALUES. They are remembered and transmitted in stories, myths, and traditions, doctrines, art, architecture, music, drama, ritual, poetry, liturgy, science, nature and biography. Western culture is the summation of these things which are all related to the Judeo/Christian tradition. Pull them out of western history and you have no sustainable culture. The Bible says that in previous days God spoke through the prophets, but in these latter days God has spoken through Jesus, who was a personification of a loving, just, peaceful way to live. Other cultures have other personifications. It is always in every culture that the ethical norms come up through persons not down through thunderbolts. But without institutionalization, these values do not get from generation to generation.

Many non-religious people, atheists, agnostics and those who have never examined these matters also carry on the ethical imperatives, but in most cases they first heard them from parents who were religious, or from some Sunday School teacher or from the other things mentioned above—art, literature, biography etc. They did not come upon these things de nova. It is not human nature to be loving, just or peaceful Just read history! They got them from somewhere or some person, or some institution. Whether or not they give credit or even understand where they got them is not important.

The role of religion, therefore, is the codification and symbolization of ethical values. Without it, these ways to live may not persist generation to generation. Therefore, religion, properly understood, is important in the struggle for human survival.