ABSTRACT
For the Old Testament Jews religion, morality and political organization were all the same thing. The Torah taught them about God, taught them what is right and what wrong, and gave them a code of laws for their state. People think they know what religion is until they try to define it, and the same is true of morality. The distinction between the three kinds of rational motivation provides a way of capturing the notion of morality. It is not morally wrong, though it may be practically disadvantageous, to do what is contrary to your interests as an intelligent organism. Religion is related to morality in these three ways: religious belief gives people special moral aims, organized religion supplies rules of conduct, and if certain religious beliefs are correct, individuals have divine help in their moral deliberations. Among laws which bring rewards and punishments the most important is Divine law.
