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Dear Father Angelo,
My friend claims that ethics are more important than religion and come before it. What’s your opinion?
Thank you and have a good evening,
Giovanni

Priest’s answer

Dear Giovanni, 

  1. In order to properly respond to your question it is necessary to distinguish between the operative existential level and the theoric normative level. 
  2. On the operative existential level, we see many people who are not religious and yet show a measure of moral rectitude.
    In this regard, the discovery of ethics comes before the discovery of religion.
    In fact, everybody has written in their own nature what is called natural law, which is, at least in its primary aspects, identical for all people.
    It is precisely because of this law that man recognizes, without having to think about it too much, what is right and what is wrong.
    Everybody agrees that it is good, or rather imperative, to provide what is necessary for one’s own livelihood and therefore recognizes on instinct that everybody has a right not only to survive, but to live a dignified life.
    On the other hand, in order to be religious is it necessary to receive an education: for someone to tell us that there is a Creator and that the same natural law we talked about has its origin in Him.
  3. The Second Vatican Council uses different and more decisive words to express these concepts: “In the depths of his conscience, man detects a law which he does not impose upon himself, but which holds him to obedience. Always summoning him to love good and avoid evil, the voice of conscience when necessary speaks to his heart: do this, shun that. For man has in his heart a law written by God; to obey it is the very dignity of man; according to it he will be judged.Conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary of a man. There he is alone with God, Whose voice echoes in his depths. In a wonderful manner conscience reveals that law which is fulfilled by love of God and neighbor. In fidelity to conscience, Christians are joined with the rest of men in the search for truth, and for the genuine solution to the numerous problems which arise in the life of individuals from social relationships. Hence the more right conscience holds sway, the more persons and groups turn aside from blind choice and strive to be guided by the objective norms of morality. Conscience frequently errs from invincible ignorance without losing its dignity. The same cannot be said for a man who cares but little for truth and goodness, or for a conscience which by degrees grows practically sightless as a result of habitual sin.” (Gaudium et spes, 16).
  4. On the other hand, if we examine things on the theoric and normative level and ask ourselves why we should do one thing rather than the other because we recognize that one thing is right and the other is wrong in every aspect of life, even the most intimate and personal, than we must pose ourselves the question of what is the purpose that every human person is called to pursue. Since the goal of the human person is determined by what a person is (which is a composite of matter and spirit, of soul and body) and since we recognize that the human soul is not merely vegetative or sensitive like that of plants or animals, but it is also rational and therefore spiritual, it is necessary to convene that the purpose of a human person is reached only through a life that transcends matter, a meta-temporal life, that goes beyond the present time.
    In fact, man, through the rational nature of his intelligence, senses the existence of God and, in light of his yearning for the infinite and the eternal, understands that no material thing can fully satisfy the needs of his heart apart from God.
    And he says with Saint Augustine: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you” (Confessions, I, 1, 1). 
  5. Having said this, it follows that religion precedes ethics because what leads man toward perfection is good and what leads him astray is bad.
    This is the theoretical and normative side of the human person.
    And it is at this level that religion precedes ethics.
  6. In summary, we can say that it is not necessary to be religious and to recognize the existence of God in order to be morally upright.
    However, if we want to get to the basic motivation as to why we say that certain actions are good while others are bad, we must take into consideration the ultimate goal of the human person.
    But since the ultimate goal of the human person comes from religion (regardless of specific beliefs), then religion precedes ethics.
  7. This is why it is rightly recognized that the two pillars of normative ethics are God and man’s freedom.
    God because He is the target in pursuing which man finds his good, his perfection.
    Freedom because we cannot express ourselves in terms of merit or demerit, responsibility or irresponsibility unless man is free.
    The Second Vatican Council reminds us that “Only in freedom can man direct himself toward goodness.” (GS 17).
    And it adds: “Our contemporaries make much of this freedom and pursue it eagerly; and rightly to be sure. Often however they foster it perversely as a license for doing whatever pleases them, even if it is evil. For its part, authentic freedom is an exceptional sign of the divine image within man. For God has willed that man remain “under the control of his own decisions,”(12) so that he can seek his Creator spontaneously, and come freely to utter and blissful perfection through loyalty to Him. Hence man’s dignity demands that he act according to a knowing and free choice that is personally motivated and prompted from within, not under blind internal impulse nor by mere external pressure. (GS 17).

I wish you a peaceful continuation of Easter joy, I bless you and remember you in prayer.
Father Angelo