ethics and religion

This week in class, especially wednesday, we spent a large portion of the class talking about ethics, what they are, and why we have them. Ethics is like a moral code that dictates how we live are lives, and every decision we make in them, but the majority of our moral ethics contradict what we really want. Almost everyday we run into moral dilemma's that test our ability to stay truthful to out on code of ethics, but the right decision is almost always different then what we want. For example, if your walking down the street and you see the person in front of drop a hundred dollar bill, the moral and ethical thing to do is to pick it up run after them and return their money, but almost every person in the world wouldn't mind an extra hundred dollars in their pocket. This in my opinion ties into the reason that man has created religion. Religion gives us a motive to continue to make the right moral and ethical decisions. In many religions they have the two parallel after lives, one being heaven, and one being hell. In hell you go on to spend eternity in a state of torture and despair, and heaven is the opposite, heaven provides you with an eternity or peace and divinity. With the concept that are moral decision in this life dictate which world we will spend are afterlives, is motivation for mankind to make the right decision when they get out of bed every day, so that they aren't overwhelmed by their wants, but they feel compelled to do what they think, and what they have been told is right.