Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 6

Ethics - Essay ExampleMany worships make claims in the ethics department, but the fact that religion does this is only a coincidence. Many religions address issues of ethics, but many also have directives that go contrary to this universally acceptable concept of ethics. Being religious is not synonymous to being ethical, as evidenced by the many instances in history where extreme violence was spurred by religious motivations, such as the Crusades and the Inquisition, the Muslim jihads, and the violence in Jerusalem. The advocates of different religions are forever squabbling over the superiority and correctness of their own religion, whereby we can conclude, if we are to be rational, that any adept of the ethical systems that they advocate are just as contentious as their religion. Religious institutions have vested interests in many areas that may not be ethical.The gentle experience is largely self-determined, and does not depend on the supernatural. There is a universal morali ty that transcends such exclusive institutions as religion solutions to our ethical dilemmas cannot be based upon religion. As Ambrose Bierce puts succinctly, religion is a daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.Today many people are not religious, are atheists, even, but their drop of religious affiliation does not exclude them from the realm of ethics. Atheism, agnosticism, or any such lack of religious conviction is often associated (by the religious, no less) with a be lack of morality. But this is not so although religion does address some ethical issues, this is merely a coincidence religion, in general, also espouses some deeply unethical beliefs. Hence religion can, and should, never be a foundation of ethical behavior.Throughout history man has constantly assumed the existence of metaphysical forces that provide a set of rules on