The Inseparability of Morality and Religion

Abstract

The title of this study is ‘Morality and Religion’, and we have, to be sure, discussed in the preceding three chapters the questions most often discussed in treatises on this subject. But a lingering, perhaps one should say ‘haunting’, question remains: namely, have we really said very much about morality and religion? We have talked rather freely of ‘morality’ and of ‘religion’, but what we have really most frequently referred to are moral codes and religious codes. What is a code? If we consult the dictionary, we find that a code is a systematic collection of statutes, body of laws so arranged as to avoid inconsistency and overlapping, set of rules on any subject, prevalent morality of a society or class, and so on. There are obviously not only moral and religious codes, but codes of all sorts: grammatical codes, legal codes, building codes, highway codes, codes of etiquette, codes of table behaviour, codes for letter-writing. I suppose that most people would say that although there are differences of differing degrees of importance amongst all these codes, there are also family resemblances in Wittgenstein’s sense. Many people would add to this that it would be easy to give a rough ordering in respect of importance to the various sorts of codes I have mentioned.

How each one of us, once we saunter past

The first redemptions of inconstant life,

Repeat, repeat, repeat

The same dead measure

And the same dead beat,

Open identical doors on identical death

And feel ashamed of everyone we meet.

David Stactonl¹