The Reflection Forms of Perceptions Regarding God Belief and Morality on Actions

Abstract

This study discusses the reflection forms of perceptions of young adults regarding belief in God and morality on their actions. In this study, while discussing the possibility of establishing the relationship between belief and morality in Islamic thought in practice, it is questioned how the notion of God and the thought with respect to the source of morality affects the actions. In this context, a qualitative research was conducted by interviewing 42 young adults, who believe in God, who have various education levels, from different occupational groups and who live in different districts of Istanbul, between the ages of 25-35; and the findings were interpreted with constructive content analysis. The findings of the research indicate that human factors such as conscience, benefit, pleasure and reason, as well as revelation, are accepted as the source of morality and that a “fragmented understanding of morality” is formed in the relationship between belief and morality. The diversity in the source of moral principles andpropositions may cause actions by bracketing the belief or suspension of morality from time to time. It is possible to assess this situation as an indicator that the ontological, epistemological and axiological connection between the Creator and human beings has not been established sufficiently.