Faith, the Foundation of Values
Are values desirable by themselves or do they become desirable when they are within a specific context? Are such values as telling the truth, being organised, helping others or other individual or social values desirable in themselves or they become desirable when they are connected to the religious environment? This has been a long-standing question in the discussion about the relationship between religion and ethics.
In the Western humanist environment, there is a serious drive to attach an independent identity to values and extricate them from the religious conduit which contains these values. Examples of such attempts at theorisation include discussion of such topics as ‘ethics independent from religion’ in the discussions on moral values, ‘human beings as the main factor determining/defining values’, ‘social acceptance/satisfaction* rather than divine acceptance/satisfaction*. There are even discussions on such topics as ‘religions without religion’ and ‘Christianity without Christ’.
