Displaying all 3 Forum Posts for the Thread:

Can you be a moral person without religion?

2010-06-18 05:49 PM

ChristyR
Denton, TX
Posts: 197

The big argument for religion that I have heard is that you need a basis for morality in your life and without religion, there is none. Also, that any morality that atheists and other non believers have is firmly rooted in or directly stolen from religion. Is this true?

2010-06-27 09:35 AM

Denita239
New York, NY
Posts: 8

We may never truly know the answer to that question. Has there been any group of people in history that lived their lives without some belief system or another?

It would probably boil down to motives. Christians try to lead a "clean" and "good" spiritual life to avoid hell and to please their God. What incentive and motive would an atheist have?

An atheist could have a strong sense of community and caring for his fellow man but, that idea too, has been bred out of religion. Religion, because laws have been based on it, still impacts the atheist.

2010-06-29 08:23 PM

logos235
Englewood, FL
Posts: 11

I think morality is innate in human beings, a specific line that may be developed and grown. For example from concern merely for onself to concern for friends and family to concern for all humans and further still to a completely encompassing concern. To say that religion is the cause of morality is strictly speaking absurd. In fact it is more true to say that religion is caused by the those among us who are highly advanced morally.
The question then becomes who taught the Buddah(or Christ etc.)? It seems to be a matter of development from this perspective but shifted slightly it becomes a matter of motivation. What drives truely moral behavior? I put forth that for an action to be considered moral it must be done for its own sake without thought of personal gain or loss, punishment or payment. It is therefor not moral to be motivated by fear of hell. Although it would be more true to say that moral action motivated by concern for self is lower than that concerned for all whatsoever.
This idea of moral development can be better understood in relation to other lines of development. For instance cognitive development, or development of the self sense, artistic development or spiritual development. Each person has access to these and many other lines and they are all inter-related effecting one another in varying degrees. For instance for one to be highly developed morally one must also be highly developed cognitively(IQ) but one can be highly developed cognitively but poorly developed morally ie. Nazi doctors. And since all of us have these inter-related lines of development open to us we can be at different levels on each of these lines poorly developed in one or another or very highly advanced or any combination whatsoever.