Explain and discuss one critique of the link between religion and morality

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Explain and discuss one critique of the link between religion and morality

        One critique of the link between religion and morality comes from Professor Chung, who believed he was a moral atheist and that you do not have to be religious to be moral, and that religion does not automatically mean that you possess moral authority. His position argues that religion in fact corrupts a person’s morality and makes them less moral.

        

Professor Chung first points out that although in our society religious rules and societies morals are closely interlinked it does not mean that religious people are qualified to decide the correct moral action one should take in a certain situation. He believes that although religious leaders regard themselves as experts they are in reality limited and not moral at all as they are being lead not by what the believe to be morally right but by a set of rules the believe they must follow. Most world religions have deontological morality systems which they must follow for example the Ten Commandments which Christians and Jews obey. These are a set of rules that they are told they should obey throughout their lives in order to live a morally good life. Therefore in situations Christians and Jews should turn to these commandments and the other commandments in the form of teachings in their holy book to decide moral dilemmas. The problem with this Professor Chung believes is that if a person does base their morality on strict rules then their moral freedom is being taken away from them, as they are not free to make a moral choice themselves.

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This is indeed true, however a religious believer could argue that they are morally free because they believe that the rule system they are following is completely,  morally correct and they have the free will to choose to follow that system. This is also true although Professor Chung’s next criticism to this would be that many religious believers who follow these moral codes do not actually believe in the all the rules and especially in modern society pick and choose which ones they wish to follow. An example of this could be the Catholic ideas that the use of ...

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