April
17, 2025
Religion and Ethics
Religion plays a fundamental role in shaping ethics.
First of all, it provides certainty: if a certain action (e.g., marital
fidelity) is prescribed by God, then it is certainly wrong to go against it;
otherwise, everyone can have their own opinion, and we are left not knowing what
to do.
Moreover, if wrongdoing is seen as sin—followed by punishment in the afterlife—it
will be obeyed far more than a vague human principle.
This explains the phenomenon, which I’d call universal, of religion as
instrumentum regni:
the use of religion for political and social purposes.
Of course, for believers, evil is truly established by God.