Statically speaking most people of the world follow a form of ethics that falls under the category of denotological ethics. Deon coming from the greek word for duty, and ological, meaning modality of something, is ethics where the end goal is not the total sum of the argument but in reaching that goal, the methods used are dictated by some authority. The reason why denotological ethics falls under the category of what most people follow is because judao-christian religions follow deonotolgical ethics. People do not live for an end goal but they have duty in how they live there lives. There is some form of authority that judge how they live.
On the other hand telelogical ethics or ethics with end, are focused soley on the end result. An example of teleogical ethics would be egoism which is the belief that happiness is the goal of human existence and it doesn't matter what it takes for you to reach that goal of happiness. If you achieve happiness, then it is good. Another example would be utilitarianism which is the belief that whatever benefits the sum of humanity is good, and it is good irregardless of what path it takes to get there.
These two classes of ethics makes up the a large portion of the creeds and ideologies we follow today in some way or another. Personally I find myself falling into the camp of teleological ethics. Teleological ethics I believe is a belief system that allows more freedom for the individual and it takes out a lot of the heem and hawing of trying to figure out if something is good. Along the lines of what the roman emperor and philosopher Marcus Arulius once said. "Stop arguing about what is good and do it." Essentially it is better to simply be what you personally believe is good, instead of trying to argue semantics. If more people were to follow in teleological ethics I think that it would relief alot of people of the anguish they find themselves dealing with. A few examples would be a gay christian trying to reconcile his homosexuality with this religion, or a scientist coming to a conclusion that refutes what his religion teaches. If they followed a teleogical ethical process then it cuts alot of the intrepeting and get to the real meat of doing what is good. What you personally believe is good.
What does it mean when I say freedom?
Freedom to me is something that is very important to living a fulfilling life, however there is a certain clause that affects this joy of freedom. I believe it was Soren Kierkegaard who made this statement, "The vertigo of freedom". Freedom is something that should be looked for in a personal understanding of the world. When someone chooses a belief system it should be a system that allows the person to be the best that they can be and to reach the highest degree of their potential. Another quote that pertains to this would be what Ernst Becker said, something of a paraphrase of this is "Our beliefs are only an illusion as the truth is too hard to comprehend. So what is the best illusion to choose? actual quote (I think the whole question would be answered in terms of how much freedom, dignity, and hope a given illusion provides). The most detrimental thing a belief system can do to you I believe is deny you of using your life to live the way you want to live. To purposely stifle your wills and desires simply to conform to a creed. A major example of this would be Christianity. As what the existentialist philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said "Christian morality is a life denying morality" and even more than that he said "There are two great (toxins) of Europe, the first is alcohol, the second is Christianity." A reason for this sentiment is that Christianity lulls one into a false sense of thinking that everything is ok. Everything is good when really things are not ok and because they have this false sense of security they will never see the situation they are trapped in. Mental slavery in a way. Another way of saying how this is a life denying morality is the fact that Christianity follows a slave morality. What is desired but too hard to obtain is condemned and what is possessed but not necessary wanted is praised.
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