Abolghasem Fanaei and Mohammad Reza Nikfar Debate the Relationship Between Religion and Morality

Does religion contribute to the moral health of society? Does religion strengthen or undermine morality?

Morality is the set of values that shapes an individual's relations with others. Morality becomes meaningful when a concern called "the other" arises in the individual's world. What role can religion play in this social domain? Many religious people say that religion is, above all, for the salvation of the individual. If so, can it be used to regulate the individual's relations with others? If religion is for refining the individual's relationship with their God, can it be used to refine society? If the answer to the question is negative, what remains of religion? Does confining religion to the individual's relationship with their Creator and excluding it from the moral sphere not empty religion of its social message?

Abolghasem Fanaei, a religious new-thinker and author of the book "Religion in the Scales of Ethics," and Mohammad Reza Nikfar, a secular philosopher and author of the book "Violence, Human Rights, Civil Society," answer the questions of two interviewers and Dariush Karimi, the program host. Mohammad Hossein Ghadiani and Mohammad Sefrian ask what the relationship is between religious morality and religious violence, and whether morality can be considered a fixed set of behavioral rules, and if the answer is negative, whether religion can be used to regulate these relations.

It is noteworthy that both experts on the program say that religion cannot be a source for deriving moral foundations. However, one of them defends religion's role in strengthening morality, while the other, arguing that religion can sometimes undermine morality, reaches different conclusions.

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Video of the Debate

Debate between Abolghasem Fanaei and Dr. Mohammad Reza Nikfar on the subject of the relationship between religion and morality on the Pargar program

Download the video of the debate on the relationship between religion and morality (Video file size: approximately 150 MB)

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Audio of the Debate

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