Religious Ethics vs. Secular Ethics

Jafar Shanazari* Shirin Abdullahi* Abstract Supporters of religious ethics consider the real truth and the man’s ultimate perfection in proximity and resemblance to God; two features gained through experiencing spiritual life and conducting religious, moral acts. In religious ethics theory; however, man’s worldly need to welfare and comfort has not been neglected and physical requirements have not been condemned, although absolute dependence to this world and negligence in the Hereafter have been strongly disapproved. Among the theologians, there is a disagreement over the response to this question whether the religious ethics depends on the theory of Divine Commands, as the Ash’arites believe in, or it is based on the innate and intellectual goodness and evil of the acts. Supporters of secular ethics accuse the religious ethics of being a deontological kind duty-centered ethics which ignores the human rights. Thus, they believe that ethical theories should be constructed out of religious rulings and the values and moral principles ought to be based on humanitarian doctrines by which the worldly life and public welfare are obtained. In this essay, after elaborating on the issue, the proofs and evidences of both religious and secular approaches to ethics will be analyzed and the claims and proofs of the supports of secular ethics will be reviewed.