Ethics

To me, the best book on ethics was written by Benedictus Spinoza.

Ironically he was expelled by the Jewish church for his views, and was taken enemy by the Vatican all through his life. That's not unexpected; the two principal questions of ethics are:

1. Is there any thing that man should (or should not) do ?
2. If yes, what are these things ?
   

If you answer no to the first question, you are an atheist. If you say yes and try to give answer to the second question, you try to play god. Any serious study in ethics would inevitably offend the territory of the church (and other religions). Keen followers of the god are expected to say yes to the first question and follow whatever laid down in the Bible (or Qur'an) for the second.

PS. In his later years, the lens polisher was offered the chair professor of philosophy in the University of Heidelberg - provided that his teaching would not touch on theology. The great philosopher turned down the offer. After all, that's an impossible mission: philosophy and theology are the two poles of a magnet, they appear to be opposite but actually attract each other. More importantly, you could never divide a magnet and take one pole away.