Quote:
Originally Posted by MelBridgeman
religion is older than christ.
religion didnt start with the bible.
just look at the native americans and their belief systems
and hey maybe i should seperate ethics/morality from religion..i dunno they always have seemed to go hand and hand
|
To say religion and ethics/morality go hand in hand would be kind of like saying a pizza is made of sauce and flour.
In other words, you're missing a giant piece of the puzzle. Yes, religious institutions do influence the ethics and morality of a certain society, but the thing is the same is true of
ALL Social Institutions. Politicial institutions, Kinship institutions, Economic institutions, power structures all play a role in development and upholding of the framework within a society.
See if you wanted to simplify it based strictly on religion, how would you explain the commonality between certain beliefs? Most civilizations/societies have Taboos against killing someone else. The thing is the idea of not killing someone else didn't come from any certain religion, but a basic human desire to survive. In order to support that morality, institutions were designed to reinforce that belief.
No, if you to say it more correctly, you'd say "Ethics and Morality is a product of Civilization". Not just Religion, which does play a part, but they do not go hand and hand any less than the other parts of the social system.