Moral Maturity

“Now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things.” — I Corinthians 13:11

Perhaps the most fundamental purpose of religion is to solve the problem of our mortality. Religion, then, becomes a kind of prudence with respect to our mortality and whatever prospects we may have for immortality. Religious prudence is any concern that what we do in this life might impact us in a future life. To Hindus, this is known as karma. To Jews, Christians, and Muslims, it is fear of God. Of course, Christians and Muslims add the prerequisite of membership.

This religious kind of prudence is quite efficatious in directing the behavior of the faithful.

Religion is often oversimplified as a program for immortality, but there is another apect that is every bit as essential: compensation for pain and suffering in this world. This is a critical aspect of divine justice that lay outside the bounds of personal choice, such as is the case with acts of nature. Even pain and suffering that is caused by other people seems unfair to us, so we posit compensation in some future life, or at least a future life that is fair in and of itself.

It can be difficult to be fair, just, or even earnest, when Nature herself seems so capricious.

I don't mean to speak of these doctrines with benign contempt: they are understandable, and I am sometimes inclined toward them. There is one common aspect of religion, however, that I find quite repugnant: compensation for virtue.

Any religion that promises any sort of compensation for virtue has no respect for virtue, though it may claim to be all about virtue, because virtuous behavior that contemplates compensation is not virtue at all, but rather false virtue. To speak frankly, it is a lie.

What is peculiar about this lie is that religions typically acknowledge individuals as free agents, each responsible for his or her own choices with regard to right and wrong, implying an innate capacity to distinguish between the two, yet the same religions cannot resist falling back on their habits of parental discipline.

Concessions in Islám to the Soul?

Even Islám, infamous for its literal doctrines of heaven and hell, and fraught with references to compensation in the hereafter, also appears to recognize that some people do good spontaneously:

And as for him who doeth of his own accord what is good—God is grateful, knowing. [1]

And if any one obeyeth his own impulse to good,—be sure that Allah is He Who recogniseth and knoweth. [2]

The phrases “doeth of his own accord what is good” and “obeyeth his own impulse to good” are different translations of an Arabic phrase that is literally more like “volunteers good”. [3]

It is peculiar that this verse from the Qur'án makes no explicit promises of compensation, but of course the Qur'án is loaded with such promises:

But as to those who believe, and do the things that are right, He will pay them their recompense. God loveth not the doers of evil. [4]

But then, the Qur'án also declares, let there be no compulsion in religion. [5] Perhaps the traditional interpretation of this verse is the intended one; that is, no forced conversion. However, I must insist that a more straightforward interpretation would be to read it as religion shall not force itself upon anyone in any way, which to me includes coercing believers into virtue with promises of Heaven and Hell. Unfortunately, the body of the Qur'án opposes such a liberal view.

Avert Your Eyes!

It may after all be a matter of fact that virtue—in some or even all cases—is compensated, but we must tread very lightly here, for to behave virtuously with thought of compensation is fundamentally cynical. Therefore to speak of compensation for virtue is a cardinal sin.

For this reason, religion should keep clear of ethics, for the sake of both. To claim that people must be threatened and cajoled into virtue is to treat them like small children, or perhaps animals.

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Sources & Notes

1. Sura of the Cow, verse 153. Rodwell translation. Pickthall (v.158) is similar. Maulana Muhammad Ali translation (v.158) uses the word “spontaneously” where Rodwell uses the phrase “of his own accord”. Arberry and Irving use “volunteers”. Asad (v.158) uses the phrase “if one does more good than he is bound to do”.
2. Sura of the Cow, verse 158. Abdullah Yusuf Ali translation. A similar statement is found in verse 184.
3. Transliteration: “tatawwa‘a khayran”. “Tatawwa‘a” means “he volunteers”, which shares a root with “he obeys”, close to a word commonly used in the command “obey God”. One of the words for “believer” uses the same root.
4. The Qur'án, Sura of the Family of Imran, verse 50 (Rodwell translation).
5. Sura of the Cow, verse 257 (Rodwell translation). Asad (v. 256) uses the word “coercion”.