




































JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY-4TH-EDITION (AQUINO)-2022


1

INVESTIGATING THE FOUNDATIONAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN 
RELIGION AND MORALITY: A NIGERIAN PERSPECTIVE.

Rev Fr Gerald OHAERI, Cssp, Ph.D

Abstract 

The issue of moral decadence in both our private and public life in Nigeria is no longer 
news. Everyone knows it and perhaps everyone decries it. Typical of the African, instead 
of an informed intelligent discussion on the causes of such moral decadence and 
informed practical solutions to it, Nigerians, led by their religious leaders, Christians 
and non-Christians alike, take recourse to praying and conjuring religion to come to our 
aid as if religion has a magic wand for guaranteeing morality not to talk of restoring one 
that is lost. This article goes to examine the underlying presumption in this prevailing 
attitude, that of a foundational relationship between morality and religion and the 
consequent expectation that religion should or ought to guarantee morality and to curb 
such moral decadence when and where it manifests itself. The verdict of this investigation 
is that both the assumption namely that morality is necessarily founded on religion, and 
the expectation namely that religion should therefore guarantee morality are grossly 
unfounded and misguided.  

Keywords: Investigating, Foundational, Religion and Morality.

INTRODUCTION

In an article titled “Ndigbo in spiritual Disarray” and published in The Leader of July 26 
2009, the Catholic Bishop of Orlu diocese Most Rev. Dr. Augustine Ukwuoma, lamented 
over what he called the moral crisis in Nigeria. The article quotes him as saying “Nigeria 
is in a moral crisis; South East is in spiritual disarray”. Regretting “that all sorts of evil, 
corruption, immorality are on the increase in Igboland”hewondered “how an area 
believed to be the Christian heartland in Nigeria, is enmershed with such wickedness” 
(cf.The Leader Vol. 1 No. 26 Sunday July 26, 2009, p.l)

And in a similar vein but with a broader outreachOsita T. Asogwa, a Catholic 

priest of the diocese of Nsukka, writes

In Nigeria today, there are so many Christian groups and churches 
that it would be most difficult to count them. There is also so much 
crime, indiscipline, injustice, exploitations and counting, that one 
begins to wonder if we operate a different brand of Christianity 
that allows such. Nigeria is unarguably a country of very religious 

                                            Aquino Journal of Philosophy, Vol 2 Issue 1 2022-June
ISSN: 2786-9792



people, recognized as one of the most religious in the world. In a 
survey conducted by the Gallup International Association, Nigeria 
was rated the second nation in the world with the highest 
percentages of self described religious persons. Yet, in the 
assessment of Transparency Internationals' 2002 Corruption 
Perception Index (CPI), which is a measure of domestic, public 
sector corruption, the same country of outstandingly religious 
character was ranked one of the most corrupt in the world, second 
only to Bangladesh.What a contradiction! (Osita T. Asogwa, 2013 
p.16)

From the northern part of Nigeria Msgr. Cletus T. Gotan writes in a paper entitled 

“Authentic Christian Faith Formation in the present Religious-cultural Crisis in Nigeria” 

which he presented at the Workshop for Formators' Association of Nigeria, FAN, Nov. 4-

8, 2013 

One of the complexities of our times is that in an environment 
where everything is clothed in religious narrative, spiritual 
languages and much religious posturing, little fruits of deep 
religious living and acting is seen in the society (p.7).

 And he goes on to ask

But why is it that our religious claims and external show of piety 
and love of God have not translated into a strong ethical and 
spiritual force for the renewal of our Nigerian society? (p.8). 

Permit me here to make one final citation, this time from a Muslim brother. Writing under 

the title “Nigeria: Religion without faith… Is it worth the Trouble?” Dr. Aliyu Tilde says 

Foreigners are often surprised to discover how religion is deep 
rooted in the psyche of the overwhelming majority of Nigerians. 
When the Egyptian-American doctoral student of Harvard, Sara 
al-Tantawi, visited me early this year to ask some questions 
regarding the impact of sharia implementation on woman, she did 
not fail to show her amazement at our religiosity (p.1).

Further in the article he says, 

I know there are thousands, if not millions, of Nigerians that are 
frustrated with our inability to use our entrenched religious favour 
to solve our problems, which are essentially none other than our 
inability to transform ourselves from the level of individuals to 
that of a community where we [sic] the action of one person has 

2

Kanu              Investigating The Foundational Relationship between Religion and Morality



consequences-good or bad-on the life of all others. (p.3)

Running through the above cited authors and indeed many Nigerians, as Tilde 

noted, is a disappointment and lamentation of a disconnect between religion and morality, 

a disconnect that is predicated on an assumed original connectedness. The aim of this 

paper, as the title suggests, is to investigate this assumed connectedness.

From this preamble it should be clear that this investigation is undertaken not 

purely for theoretical or academic interest. There is, as you can already perceive, some 

practical social interest. Our interest is motivated by the Nigerian situation. We shall 

therefore be asking whether the foundational view represented by the cited sources is 

justifiable. You can now see why the title of this paper has the additional qualification “A 

Nigerian Angle”! Within the Nigerian situation or context, we hope finally to discuss why 

religion or religious morality cannot solve our problems.

MORALITY AND THE NEED FOR A FOUNDATION 

For the purposes of this paper, we shall take morality as having to do with human 

actions or conducts in so far as these are human actions or conducts i.e. actions or 

conducts that merit approval or disapproval by the human community. It is in this sense 

that Prof. Radoslav A. Tsanoff (1947) writes 

We say broadly that the science of ethics or morals is concerned 
with character and with conduct that is approved or disapproved.

Such approval or disapproval, as the case may be, is expressed by judging the 

action or conduct as “good” or “bad”, “right” or “wrong”. Dr. Christopher Ikechukwu 

Asogwa(2012) of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka puts it in this way: 

It has been observed that human actions posses quality in virtue of 
which they receive appendage terms such as 'right' or 'wrong', 
'good' or 'bad' as accolades or judgments. That quality is morality.

The issue or problem of foundation for morality comes in when one goes further to 

question the basis for the approval or disapproval of an action. Let me illustrate. A boy 

takes something that does not belong to him. In the language of morality you tell him, he 

should not do that, i.e. take what does not belong to him. This is stealing, you may add! 

And if he goes on to ask you “but why should I not steal or take what does not belong to 

me?” you are bound to give him reasons. You could tell him that decent boys do not 

3

                                            Aquino Journal of Philosophy, Vol 2 Issue 1 2022-June
ISSN: 2786-9792



steal.You could tell him society does not approve that.You could tell him God commands 

us not to take our neighbours' belongings etc. Ludwig Wittgenstein is said to have noted 

that the language of morality is “ought”. (cf H.O. Mounce “Morality and Religion” in B. 

Davies Op(ed), 1998, p. 255).You ought to do this or you ought not to do this. Just as you 

would tell someone sick “you ought to take your medication” and hing this on his express 

desire to recover from his sickness and the necessary causal relatedness between the 

medication and his recovery, so also the ought of morality needs a foundation, a basis for 

its justifiability or universal applicability. There seems to be a consensus among 

philosophers that morality needs a foundation. Where there is certain divisiveness of 

opinion is on that which serves as this foundation. We shall here briefly examine some of 

these opinions. They could be subsumed under two or three broad divisions, namely those 

who maintain that morality's foundation is religion and those who hold the contrary 

position, and thirdly those who hold that each is independent of the other. For the purposes 

of this paper, we shall not be concerned here with the views of those who hold that each is 

independent of the other.

MORALITY NEEDS & HAS RELIGION AS ITS FOUNDATION 

Though we made some reference to Islam in our preamble in order to widen our 

base to include other religions and not just Christianity, we shall in this subsection be 

concentrating on Judaeo-christian religion. What is said here could apply, ceteris paribus, 

to all other religions. 

The locus classicus for those who hold and argue that religion is the foundation of 

morality is the Ten Commandments of the Hebrew and Christian sacred books. In the Ten 

Commandments or rather in the structure of the Ten Commandments one sees what it 

means for morality to be based or founded on religion. In his article “Morality and 

religion” H.O. Mounce (1998) brings this out clearly. Therein he writes:

…. In earlier cultures, there was no sharp distinction between the 
moral and the religious. The Ten Commandments of the ancient 
Hebrews will serve as an example. The first four concern our 
duties to God; the remaining six, our duties to our neighbor. 
Nowadays, it may be said that the last six are moral, the first four 
religious. But to the ancient Hebrew there was no such distinction. 
Throughout, the commands instruct us in our duties to God. Thus 
the last six do not instruct us in how to serve our neighbor as 
distinct from serving God. Rather they instruct us in how God 
wishes us to serve him in our dealing with our neighbor.

Whether in the realm of the religious or that of morality the structure is the same: God 

4

Kanu              Investigating The Foundational Relationship between Religion and Morality



commands or gives instruction. This instruction tells us what to do and what not to do. 

Ours is obedience to this instruction. The goodness or badness of our actions issues forth 

therefore, from either compliance or noncompliancewith such divine instructions. 

Stealing a neighbour's goat or sleeping with his wife or worst still killing his daughter is 

judged bad or wrong because the divine command disapproves of these. Apostles of 

religious morality (i.e. religion-based morality) maintain that all human actions, judged 

as moral, have their origin in a divine command and could not have come to be without 

this divine intervention/command. 

MORALITY NEEDS & DOES NOTHAVE RELIGION AS ITS FOUNDATION 

A typical representative of this school of thought is Peter Schwartz. In his article 

“Moral Values without Religion,” (2005) he asks: “Does morality depend upon religion?” 

And he goes on to say:

Most people believe it does, which is a major reason behind the 
appeal of the religious right. People believe that without faith in a 
supernatural authority, we can have no moral values-no moral 
absolutes, no black-and-white distinctions, no firm demarcation 
between good and evil-in life or in politics. This is the assumption 
underlying Justice Antonin Scalia's recent assertion that 
'government derives its authority from God' since only religious 
faith can supposedly provide moral constraints on human action 
(p.1).

He then queries 

And what draws people to this bizarre premise –the premise that 
there is no rational basis from refraining from murder, rape or 
anarchism? (ibid). 

As opposed to a faith-based morality Peter Schwartz advocates/proposes what he calls a 

morality of reason. Such a morality, he says, 

begins with the individual's life as the primary value and 
indentifies the further values that are demonstrably required to 
sustain that life. It observes that man's nature demands that we live 
not by random urges or by animal instincts, but by the faculty that 
distinguishes us from animals and on which our existence 
fundamentally depends: rationality (p.2).

Peter Schwartz of course does not just advocate or propose a morality of reason. 

He points to the facticity of its existence. 

5

                                            Aquino Journal of Philosophy, Vol 2 Issue 1 2022-June
ISSN: 2786-9792



There is indeed morality without religion, a morality, not of 
dogmatic commands, but of rational values and of unbreached 
respect for the life of the individual (p.3).

What lends credences to the position of apologists of morality of reason or morality 

without religion is the presence of morally upright fellows/persons of atheistic persuasion 

in our midst. In this regard A. Zaman (2007) observes in his work “Does Religion Define 

Morality” thatthere are theists who commit immoral acts and there are conscientious non 

theists who behave morally.

 The conclusion he draws from this is self evident. 

And since there are 'non-theists' who also behave morally so the 
immediate conclusion is that religious belief is not a necessary 
prerequisite for being moral 

John Henderson (2007) on this note writes in his book God.com: A Deity for the 

New Millennium

don't point to the wonderful things that good people do for their 
fellow man and call that religion. That is morality. There are many 
good, moral people. Most of the individuals whom I know as 
moral and worthwhile citizens would be that way even if they 
never went to church and never had a religion. 

On this same note but arguing from the perspective of the foundational 

relationship of religion and law, Harold J. Berman (1974) writes 

Also, anthropologists are able to show by empirical observation 
that no society tolerates indiscriminate lying, stealing, or violence 
within the in-group, and indeed, the last six of the Ten 
Commandments, which require respect for parents and prohibit 
killing, adultery, stealing, perjury, and fraud, have some 
counterpart in every known culture. In fact natural-law theories 
consider a religious explanation of law to be superstitious and 
dangerous. Such theorists are able to demonstrate by reason and 
observation alone that basic legal values and principles 
correspond to human nature and to the requirements of social 
order. 

What has critalized from our investigation so far is that morality which the various views 

discussed above agree to be a necessary component of being human, requires by its very 

nature a foundation. This foundation could be religion; it could be rationality; it could also 

be custom or what some authorscall social consciousness.

6

Kanu              Investigating The Foundational Relationship between Religion and Morality



THE NIGERIAN ANGLE

We shall now look into what I have called the Nigerian Angle in this investigation. 

Though there are certainly atheists and agnostics in Nigeria, there is no doubt in my mind 

that the discussion on the foundation of morality is no serious issue for the majority of 

Nigerians, Christians, Muslims or traditional religionists. Most Nigerians would 

certainly subscribe to the view that morality is founded on religion. What I call the 

Nigerian angle here is not just the near consensus on this matter of the faith foundation of 

morality but the equally near consensus that morality is solely based or founded on 

religion. This explains for me the constant pointing of fingers to religion in most of the 

discussions castigating the moral decadence in our society. This explains for me why 

some critics, like Dr. Aliyu Tilde, in the face of this contradiction, as my good friend Osita 

T. Asogwa puts it, are tempted to jettison religion. The next and final leg of our 

investigation therefore is to examine this view that it is a contradiction for moral 

decadence to prevail in a supposedly deeply religious society like Nigeria. I shall 

conclude by saying a word on why religion should not be blamed for our moral 

decadence. Put in other words, I shall say a word on why religion cannot solve our 

problem of moral decadence.

THE ISSUE OF CONTRADICTION

Is it really incongruous, as Osita T. Asogwa and Bishop Augustine Ukwuoma 

would have us believe, to be religious and at the same time morally or ethically wanting? 

By extension is it incongruous for a given society to be deeply religious and at the same 

time morally decadent? To answer this question, let us look once more at the Ten 

Commandments which we have seen above as the basis of both religious and moral 

practices in the Judaeo-Christian religion. There is certainly nothing logically and 

practically impossible in one person keeping the first four (three) commandments and not 

keeping the other six (seven). In his study of “The Relationship between Religion and 

Ethics in Jewish Thought” Louis Jacobs (1996) observes that even Jewish rabbis did 

recognize that morality did not need religion to be effective. In some of their writings 

these rabbis, Jacobs says, 

are, in fact, calling attention to the phenomenon that it is quite 
possible for a man to have a strongly developed religious or 
numinous sense but to be at the same time a thorough scoundrel so 
far as his ethical conduct is concerned. At all events it is suggested 
here that one can speak of a man as having a strong moral character 
without him having any use of religion, and the Rabbis are saying 
that such an assessment of human character need not be wrong 
since religion is one thing and ethics another, though, of course, 

7

                                            Aquino Journal of Philosophy, Vol 2 Issue 1 2022-June
ISSN: 2786-9792



for the Rabbis, Judaism demands both”.

The priest and the Levite in the parable of the Good Samaritan perhaps exemplify this. 

They had certainly strongly developed religious sense with no corresponding developed 

moral sense. 

RELIGIOUS MORALITY CANNOT SOLVE OUR PROBLEM

Let us conclude our investigation by looking at why religious morality cannot 

solve our moral decadence problem. To my mind why this is so is both simple and 

obvious. Why our religious morality cannot solve our problem lies in the very nature of 

both religion and morality itself. Unlike ancient Judaism and primitive Islam the brand of 

religion we practice in Nigeria, whether Christianity or Islam, has lost what H.J. Berman 

calls its legal tooth. This lost of its legal tooth contributes, he say, in no small way to the 

ineffectiveness of a religion to play its role of social engineering. Writing to the American 

public in 1974 Berman warned 

To appeal to religion to recue law in America today is like asking a 
drowning man to recue another 

Mutatis mutandis the same can be said of Nigerians. To appeal to religion to recue 

morality in Nigeria today is like asking a drowning man to recue another 

When we look at morality itself we see the same lost of legal tooth. Morality is by 

its very nature normative i.e. it can and indeed does prescribe but has no legal binding 

power to enforce compliance to its prescriptions. If the moral tells you “do not steal or do 

not kill” it does not have any legal binding force to compel your compliance. Even when 

one assumes that morality is founded on religion, this assumption by itself does not 

guarantee the acceptance of and compliance with the dictates or prescriptions of such a 

morality. That further step, the acceptance/compliance with the dictates of morality is a 

free choice of the accepting community and by extension the accepting individual. After 

Moses had read out the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, it was left to the people of 

Israel to accept it or not. And even when they had said “All that the Lord has said, we shall 

do” we know that the subsequent history of Israel is a chronicle of disobedience to these 

laws. Paul Taylor (1985) makes the case that ultimately our commitment to moral 

principles is in no way predicated on whatever foundation such moral principles are said 

to be based on. Such commitment, he argues, “is finally a matter of one's will.”

The second element in the nature of morality that makes it impossible for it to 

solve our problem is that morality is a baby of several mothers or what Dr. C.I. Asogwa 

calls morality's “feeder channels”and George Anastaplo (1983) calls “private shapers of 

8

Kanu              Investigating The Foundational Relationship between Religion and Morality



morality” On this note Asogwa writes: 

As raw material of moral philosophy, morality has certain feeder 
channels on which it seems to rest and depend. These otherwise 
have been referred to as sources of morality. Some of these are 
customs, religion, society, instinct, conscience, etc. they form the 
corpus of morality. However, necessary and sufficient sources of 
morality may never be established since morality encompasses 
these and more that are heavily drawn upon consciously or 
unconsciously by the moralist.

From the above it is clear that any nurturing of morality that does approach this task from 

all or most of these relevant sources is bound to fail.

CONCLUSION

From the above investigations it is clear that though morality may require a foundation, 
this foundation must not be religion and even where religion is said to provide this 
foundation, religion does not ipso facto guarantee such morality. The bane of the Nigerian 
society is that we as a people have collectively left nurturing our morality from its several 
mothers. As a people we have laid a disproportionate weight almost exclusively on 
religion to nurture our morality, both private and public. We close our eyes, for example, 
to the contributions of positive law and civic education to engineer and nurture public 
morality. The resultant effect is the moral decadence we see in our supposedly religious 
society. Surely religion is not and should not be blamed for this!

References
Anastaplo George (1983) “Aristotle on Law and Morality” in 3 Windsor [Ontario] 
Yearbook of Access to Justice 458 – 64
Asogwa C. Ikechukwu, (2012) Ethics & Aesthetics (Introduction to Moral Philosophy 
and Aesthetics). Professor's Press, Enugu

Asogwa T. Osita (2013), More Christians Less Christianity (The Paradox of a 
Religious Corrupt Society)

Berman H.J. (1974), The Interaction of Law and Religion SCM Press Ltd,Bloomsbury 
Street London

Cotan C.T. (2013), “Authentic Christian Faith Formation in the Present Religious 
cultural Crisis in Nigeria” Paper presented at the workshop for Formator's Association 
of Nigeria, 
FAN Nov 4-8

9

                                            Aquino Journal of Philosophy, Vol 2 Issue 1 2022-June
ISSN: 2786-9792



Hare, John (2006) “Religion and Morality”in Stanford Encyclopedia of philosophy

Henderson John () “God.con: A Deity for the New Millennium” cited in Austin Cline,
Morality and Religion (Book Notes: GOD.com) 

Jacob Louis (1996) “The Relationship between Religion and Ethics in Jewish 
Thought” 
in G.P. Fernandez, Morals. 

Mandal Sourav (2010) “Law an 
Morality”

Mounce H.O. (1998) “Morality and Religion” in B.Dovis Opled 

Packham Richard (2007), Morality and religion: Can we raise moral children without 
religion? .teleport.com/~packham/morality.htm

Schwartz Peter (2005), “Moral Values without religion” published in Indianapolis Post 
Tribune, June 2

Taylor Paul W. (1985) “The ultimate Question” in Joel Feintberg (ed) Reason & 
Responsibility, Readings in some Basic Problems of Philosophy, Wadsworth 
publishing company, Belmont, California 

Tilde Aliyu (2010) “Nigeria: Religion without faith, is it worth the Trouble” published 
in The Nigerian Voice 

Tsanaff R.A. (1947), Ethics, New York & London, Harper and Brothers. 

Ukwuoma A. (2009) “Ndigbo in Spiritual Disarray” in. The leader Vol. I No. 26 
Sunday July 26

Zaman A. () “Does Religion Define morality”  
does_religion_define_morality_aparthib.htm

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/religion-morality/

http://atheism.about.com/b/a/258183.htm

http://www.legalserviceindia.com/articles/imor.htm

http://home

http://humanists.net/aviji/article/

10

Kanu              Investigating The Foundational Relationship between Religion and Morality

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/religion-morality/
http://atheism.about.com/b/a/258183.htm
http://www.legalserviceindia.com/articles/imor.htm
http://home
http://humanists.net/aviji/article/

	Page 1
	Page 2
	Page 3
	Page 4
	Page 5
	Page 6
	Page 7
	Page 8
	Page 9
	Page 10

