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Religion and Ethics: free practice, theory and problems
Religion and ethics is about how people interpret life: faith, worldviews, values and what is right and wrong. The subject studies religions both from the inside (what believers say) and from the outside (as researchers).
Contents
- Religion in Norway and the world
- Christianity
- Islam
- Judaism
- Hinduism and Buddhism
- Worldviews and critique of religion
- Ethical theories
- Philosophy
1. Religion in Norway and the world
What is it about?
Religion and ethics is about how people interpret life: faith, worldviews, values and what is right and wrong. The subject studies religions both from the inside (what believers say) and from the outside (as researchers).
Concepts and formulas
- Dimensions of religion (after Ninian Smart): doctrine, narrative, ritual, ethics, experience, community and the material (buildings, art).
- Freedom of religion: everyone has the right to believe, change or have no religion. It is in the Constitution and in human rights law.
- The Church of Norway is the largest faith community in Norway. The state church arrangement was mostly dismantled in 2012 and 2017.
- Secularisation: religion gets less room in society and in people's lives.
- Pluralism: many religions and worldviews living side by side.
- The largest religions in the world are Christianity (about 2.4 billion) and Islam (about 1.9 billion).
Example
A confirmation can be studied as ritual (what happens?), as community (who takes part?) and as experience (what does it mean to the person being confirmed?).
2. Christianity
What is it about?
Christianity is based on the belief that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, who died and rose again. It is the world's largest religion and has shaped Norwegian culture for a thousand years.
Concepts and formulas
- The Trinity: one God in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
- The Bible: the Old Testament (shared with Judaism) and the New Testament (the Gospels, the letters).
- Main branches: Catholic (the Pope in Rome, seven sacraments), Orthodox (especially in Eastern Europe) and Protestant (from the Reformation in 1517, including Lutheran). The split between East and West came in 1054.
- Sacraments in the Lutheran church: baptism and Holy Communion.
- Festivals: Christmas (the birth of Jesus), Easter (death and resurrection), Pentecost (the Holy Spirit).
- Love of neighbour and the Golden Rule: "Do to others what you would have them do to you."
Example
Easter is the most important Christian festival because the resurrection is the core of the faith: death has been overcome.
3. Islam
What is it about?
Islam means "submission" to God (Allah). Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad received God's revelation, collected in the Quran. Islam is the world's second largest religion.
Concepts and formulas
- Tawhid: belief in one God. Muhammad (about 570–632) is regarded as the last prophet.
- The Five Pillars: the declaration of faith (shahada), prayer five times a day (salah), almsgiving (zakat), fasting in Ramadan (sawm) and the pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) at least once in a lifetime for those who can.
- The Quran is God's word in Arabic. Sunna and hadith are accounts of what Muhammad said and did.
- Main branches: Sunni (about 85–90 %) and Shia. The split originally concerned who should lead after Muhammad.
- Hijra (622): the migration from Mecca to Medina. The Islamic calendar starts there.
- Eid al-Fitr celebrates the end of Ramadan.
Example
During Ramadan, Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset for a month. The fast is meant to build self-discipline and compassion with those who go hungry.
4. Judaism
What is it about?
Judaism is the oldest of the Abrahamic religions. It is built on the covenant between God and the Jewish people, and on the Torah, the five books of Moses.
Concepts and formulas
- Tanakh: the Hebrew Bible: the Torah (law), Nevi'im (prophets) and Ketuvim (writings).
- Talmud: interpretations and discussions of the law.
- Sabbath: day of rest from Friday evening to Saturday evening.
- Synagogue: a house of prayer and teaching. Rabbi: teacher and leader.
- Kosher: rules for what may be eaten, for example no pork and no meat and milk together.
- Bar mitzvah (boys, 13) and bat mitzvah (girls, 12): coming of religious age.
- Festivals: Passover (the Exodus from Egypt), Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) and Hanukkah (the festival of lights).
- Branches: Orthodox, Conservative and Liberal (Reform).
Example
At Passover Jews eat unleavened bread (matzo) in memory of the Israelites having to flee Egypt so fast that the dough had no time to rise.
5. Hinduism and Buddhism
What is it about?
Hinduism and Buddhism arose in India. Both see life as a cycle of rebirths, and the goal is to become free of it.
Concepts and formulas
- Samsara: the cycle of birth, death and rebirth.
- Karma: your actions have consequences for how you are reborn.
- Hinduism: Brahman is the all-embracing divine power, and atman is the soul. Many gods, among them Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. The goal is moksha, liberation. Sacred texts: the Vedas and the Bhagavad Gita.
- Buddhism: founded by Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha ("the awakened one"), about 500 years before the common era.
- The Four Noble Truths: life involves suffering, suffering is caused by craving, suffering can end, and the way there is the Noble Eightfold Path.
- Nirvana: the state in which craving and suffering are extinguished.
- Branches of Buddhism: Theravada and Mahayana (including Tibetan and Zen).
Example
A Buddhist meditates to observe thoughts and feelings without clinging to them. This is part of the Eightfold Path.
6. Worldviews and critique of religion
What is it about?
Not everyone has a religion. A worldview is an overall view of life, and it can be religious or non-religious. Critique of religion questions religions' claims and their role in society.
Concepts and formulas
- Secular humanism: a worldview without god, emphasising reason, science and human dignity. The Norwegian Humanist Association (founded 1956) offers, among other things, civil confirmation.
- Atheism: the belief that there is no god. Agnosticism: that we cannot know whether there is a god.
- External critique of religion: Feuerbach (God is a picture of humanity's own ideals), Marx (religion is "the opium of the people", dampening protest against injustice) and Freud (religion as wishful thinking).
- Internal critique: believers criticising their own religion, for example Luther.
- Critique of the critique: many believers hold that science and faith answer different questions.
Example
Marx thought religion promised happiness after death, and that this made workers accept injustice in this life.
7. Ethical theories
What is it about?
Ethics is reflection on what is right and wrong. The major ethical theories give different answers to what makes an action good.
Concepts and formulas
- Consequentialism: the action is judged by its outcomes. Utilitarianism (Bentham, Mill): do what produces the greatest happiness for the greatest number.
- Duty ethics: some actions are right or wrong in themselves. Kant: act only on rules you could will to apply to everyone (the categorical imperative), and never treat people merely as means.
- Virtue ethics (Aristotle): asks "how do I become a good person?". The virtues are the golden mean: courage lies between cowardice and recklessness.
- Ethics of intention: what matters most is the intention behind the action.
- The ethics of love of neighbour and the Golden Rule are found in many religions.
- Ethical argument: premises (claims and values) leading to a conclusion.
Example
A murderer asks where your friend is hiding. A utilitarian would lie to save the friend. Kant held that lying is wrong even here, because you cannot will lying to become a universal rule.
8. Philosophy
What is it about?
Philosophy means "love of wisdom". Philosophers ask basic questions: What can we know? What is real? Do we have free will? What is a good life?
Concepts and formulas
- Socrates (about 470–399 BCE): asked questions to expose what people really knew. "I know that I know nothing."
- Plato: the theory of Forms, where the true reality is the Forms. The allegory of the cave: people only see shadows of reality.
- Aristotle: observed nature and laid the foundations of logic and science.
- Descartes: doubted everything and arrived at "I think, therefore I am".
- Existentialism (Sartre): humans are "condemned to be free" and must create meaning themselves.
- Free will and determinism: is everything we do fixed in advance by causes, or do we choose freely?
- Argument: a valid argument has a conclusion that follows logically from the premises.
Example
In the allegory of the cave, chained prisoners see only shadows on a wall. The one who escapes and sees the Sun understands reality, but is not believed on returning.
Example problems with solutions
Here are some of the problems in religion and Ethics. In the app, calculation problems get new numbers every time, so you can practise until it sticks – and take a graded practice exam before the real one.
Religion in Norway and the world: What does secularisation mean?
Answer: Religion getting less room in society
Less religious influence over time.
Christianity: What is the Trinity?
Answer: One God in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit
A central Christian doctrine.
Islam: How many pillars does Islam have?
Answer: 5
5: shahada, salah, zakat, sawm and hajj.
Judaism: When is the Sabbath?
Answer: From Friday evening to Saturday evening
The day of rest in Judaism.