what's the difference between ethics and religion?

Question

any examples or philosophical statements/arguments/definitions will be well appreciated.
Thanx

Answer 1

Religion without the mystical is merely a system of ethics. - DT Suzuki, Zen Monk

Answer 2

Ethics is a vast term encompassing many stuff. in the context right here, we many times communicate approximately descriptive ethics, that are the ethical standards that people abide via. Occassionally, the context shifts to normative ethics, that's the capability by which a direction of action is chosen. faith is a collection of ideals that inevitably includes components that are the two supernatural, or are in any different case closed to mundane lifestyles. Religions oftentimes incorporate particular ethics interior their morality, yet ethics isn't constrained to the sector of religious theory. a guy or woman without faith can nevertheless carry a code of ethics, and purely approximately all of them do.

Answer 3

For me ethics is a code of behaviour that defines my social existence. Its based on the morals I inherited from my parents and some I've defined myself and, of course, the laws and customs of the society in which I live.
In other words how I relate to my fellow man (and woman).

Religion can encompass this but also includes how we relate to the divine. Mostly in instructions in how to live a godly life, how and when to pray, what is permissible to worship and what is not and the such like.

Another difference between religion and ethics is that religion seems to encourage group thinking while ethics is solely the domain of the individual conscience.

Answer 4

I would say that religion is a system through which people believe they can come to know the purpose for their life (i specifically exclude knowing a god--or God--from this definition because some groups widely identified as "religions" don't have gods--Buddhism, for example).

Part of that purpose of life generally includes being "good," i.e. knowing certain rules of conduct that say it is okay to do some things but not okay to do others. For example, if you come across an old lady walking down the street, religions would state that as part of your purpose, you should be good and help her across the street instead of running her over with your car.

Ethics, on the other hand, i would say, try to decipher the "rules" of goodness, but exclude the purpose. That is, instead of saying "i shouldn't run this woman over because of my purpose to be good," ethics only says "i shouldn't run this woman over." There's no "why" attached; and hence no reason why one shouldn't run the woman over.

That's why i think ethics can really only make sense when incorporated with religion. Doesn't mean "non"-religious (i use the term for lack of a better term, because i doubt if non-religion is even possible) people aren't ethical, only means they have no reason to be ethical but often are anyway.

Answer 5

Ethics can be determined by societal standards (lie, cheat, steal) and can vary from society to society (corporal and capital punishment, eating cows, hunting etc). A person can internalizes the standards their society and culture set up and live by. Religion is a belief in something as a higher being and often a thought process and belief in right and wrong can stem from that. Societal ethics can be shared by different religions (Americans and Israeli's see stealing and lying as wrong) and I believe no one in India eats cow whether they are Hindu or not (I could be wrong).
Ethics can change as society changes (child labor etc) but religious standards change much slower or not at all.
Does that make sense or help?

Answer 6

Religion is (or should be) based upon how an individual, or a society relates to God and to each other according to the tenets of their belief.

Ethics is based upon how an individual or a society relates to other individuals, other cultures, or to society at large based upon what is best for the masses.

Sometimes, those may overlap, but there are many ethical issues, and questions of ethical responsibility that are the products of modern technology, and are not specifically addressed through religious texts.

Answer 7

ethics are rules of proper conduct within a society

Whereas religion is the organized worship of a deity, and while many religions have a system of ethics, the core of any faith is the deity in which it believes, the hows of that worship and belief are what seperates the demoniations, even if the ethical rules are still universal between them

Answer 8

Ethics is a primary division of philosophy, along with metaphysics and epistemology. Ethics is the study of value, typically moral values, but can include aesthetics and commerce, etc. Religion is the embodiment of shared beliefs, including values, practiced communally. Sometimes this is towards a deity, but it can also be a shared practice of attaining virtues or "enlightenment" without reference to deities, as in Buddhism, Taoism, and Shinto. Religion can incorporate all three divisions of philosophy, as they tend to be totalizing world views. It can supply answers for what people are (metaphysics), how we know this (epistemology), and what we are to do with ourselves (ethics).

Answer 9

Religion is a belief in God. Ethics is what you think or believe in how society should act. Ethics has to do more with behavior and manners, what you think one should or should not do.

Answer 10

Sweet Pea ethics is more of moral value and religion is something people believe in, to be true.