One does not need religion to lead a good life

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Authors
Flanagan, Jerome
Issue Date
2010
Degree
BA (Hons) Arts
Publisher
Dublin Business School
Rights
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Abstract
How life is lived is infinitely varied. We are all different. How we look at life is the same. We have many questions about life and ourselves and how we fit in. Questions about why we are here, do our lives have meaning. If we live in a particular way will this add to the meaning of our lives or not? But while we have many questions, we also seek answers, and one of the most important questions we seek an answer to is ‘how do I live a good life?’ There are many calls today for people to return to more religious ways. As society is perceived to be more and more secularised as the years go on, especially in the West, the calls for a return to God have grown. Many believe that we have lost our way somehow because we no longer believe in a higher power or something greater than ourselves. Because of this we are lacking somehow and that this lack can somehow inhibit our ability to live proper lives, good lives. I wish to show in this work that it is possible to live a good life without recourse to religion. I want to show that people who are non-believers are just as capable of living good lives as believers, that they can have a motive for living good lives just the same as those who have religion showing them the way. I will do this through a comprehensive look at the works of two philosophers – Eric Voegelin and Iris Murdoch. Voegelin’s work looked at having a right order of being and gaining an understanding of what such an order of being is. For Voegelin this order of being included a transcendent order as a matter of course. To gain true understanding of both orders of being Voegelin advocated grounding in religion. Only through religion can one gain fullest understanding and be able thus to lead good lives. Murdoch shows us that we can live good lives without recourse to religion. She shows us that there are ways and devices we can use to aid in understanding our lives and how we live them. For Murdoch a concept she calls the Good can be used to give each of us, as moral agents, something that motivates us to lead good lives.
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