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Iris Murdoch: The Morality Of Religion

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Morals are not defined by whether you follow a religion. The writings of Iris Murdoch were interesting because she was often questioning religions and why people follow them. Murdoch is often questioning how religion correlates with morals. While she’s not completely bashing religion, she does make many points that express that it is not necessary. She believed in and promoted “dutifulness” and other options or ideas on how to be a decent person in her own ways through other philosophies. Morality is subjective and can stem from philosophy, how a person is raised, what individuals feel is right or wrong, and even religion. Even people with such religious morals go against their faith and cause opposition to what they find right or wrong. Religion …show more content…

Because of many of the points found to be immoral in the most popular of religions and how contradicting these religious texts can be about morality. For example, in Christianity one of the 10 commandments states that “thou shall not murder” while in Luke 19:27 it says, “But those my enemies, who would not that I should reign over them, bring here, and slay them before me”. This is a great example of the bible contradicting its own moral teachings and promoting something that is seen almost universally as immoral. With Christianity so popular this should be evidence enough religious teachings can be contradictory and often promote immoral philosophical …show more content…

It is possible to act in ways that are kind hearted and helpful without need of the church. Murdoch will also go on to point out this flaw in religion when she states, “Both morality and religion face the same insuperable difficulty” (Murdoch). Morals are based on how you view the world and how you act upon them. In some cases, people are inherently bad to their core and base their ethics with ignorance. There are good and evil sides to religion as well. Gay marriage is an example of how Christians make it difficult for people of other points of view to feel like they fit in. The bible states that two men should not be in a romantic relationship where as people of opposite gender can do so. It is completely up to one’s personal perspective to understand what is right or

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