Creating a normative legal system has become a debatable topic regarding the morality of the set legal laws and guidelines governing society today. Legal and social laws are a must for managing societies in promoting uprightness and punishing wrongdoers. In this regard, forming laws and societal guidelines need specific conditions or processes in ensuring the laws are ethical and inclusive of all members of society.
Religion is founded as one factor that influences the formation of laws because of the religious doctrines that are considered morally upright. But most people fail to understand the difference between religion and God as separate entities. What then shapes and defines the best moral laws between God and religion? This essay explains the difference between God as the lawmaker and religion in influencing morality and ethical values in society.
God is a different entity from religion and independent of the influence of human beings, while faith is dependent on human beings, therefore subject to adjustments according to the specifications of a given religious group. A religion does not guarantee the existence of its God (Benjamin et al., 2020). For example, a group of people can form religious groups made up of certain beliefs without considering the author and controller of the given thoughts. If religion and God are different, then the law cannot be made based on certain religious beliefs. Moral laws should base on God’s commands because; God is the giver of universal objectivity of morality, God gives the ultimate justice, and God is the creator and giver of all human knowledge.
God As the Controller of Law and Moral Values
Throughout history, the laws made by human beings have been idiosyncratic, biased, mostly wrong, and absurd. Most laws made by man suppress individuals from God’s rights, making the human authority superior to God’s sovereignty. Human dignity and freedoms come from God, and no religion or current laws can hinder this God-given dignity. Therefore, God is the ultimate giver of objective and ethical moral values. Morality should also depend on God because all current laws and policies come from the original rules made by God as his divine commandments. If the lawmakers insist on being the normative lawgivers, they should make principles that articulate God’s commands as God is the origin of ethical uprightness.
Epistemologically, God is the giver of all laws because all human beings have a natural knowledge of what is good and wrong. Religious people often wonder how atheists acquire morals because they consider religion as the basis for morality. God as the natural giver of all laws explains this belief so that religious people understand that morals come from God and not a people’s religion. When creating and passing legal laws, individuals must not base the principles on religion and claim the normative position of being above all laws because all knowledge comes from a higher being than human beings.
The existence of God’s commands gives basis to the morality of laws with God as the giver; therefore, since all moral laws come from God (Benjamin et al., 2020), then He is must transcend over all the rules of righteousness and justice. Additionally, atheists follow a particular code of morality without belonging to any religious group, which means morals originate from only one source, and that is where human beings should seek to find justice and make legal laws.
The Influence of Religion in Forming Laws
Religion is a cultural and or linguistic framework that defines the entirety of a given peoples way of life or thinking. It entails the people’s beliefs, experiences, attitudes, and sentiments which shape the cultural phenomena, providing moral laws and rules that guide the community.
Communities form religions based on their realities due to the different interactions with the evolving world. Therefore, religion is subjective to specific communities and their beliefs hence the difference in moral values. What is morally upright in one religion may not be ethically acceptable in another religion, so laws cannot be made based on religion but on God as the Sovereign (Benjamin et al., 2020). Furthermore, the subjectivity of religion also means it is bound to change over time which states the inconsistency of human laws in governing states and promoting morality.
In conclusion, human beings should create moral laws according to the dynamics of life. Since time, the world is changing with the emergence of civilization and modern lifestyles, which call for evolving statutes. As Darwin explains, nature chooses who and what survives, so laws must follow the evolutionary world to encompass all cultures and religious beliefs given the current societal conditions.
It can be said that God is the creator and controller of the universe, including nature and human beings; therefore, He knows the changes taking place around the world. And because God gave man the power of knowledge, innovation, and decision making, it is up to man to make and redefine some of the biblical commands on morals to suit the current society legally and socially. Without disregarding God as the Sovereign, human beings can create and command their liberal laws.
Reference
Benjamin Hoadly, Samuel Clarke, and the Ethics of the Bangorian Controversy: Church, State, and the Moral Law. (2020). Religions, 11(11), 599. Web.