Thursday 19 January 2012

Agnosticism / Atheism: Weekly Poll: Is Religion Necessary for Morality and Ethics?

Agnosticism / Atheism
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Weekly Poll: Is Religion Necessary for Morality and Ethics?
Jan 19th 2012, 08:00

Most religious believers tend to connect religion and morality in such a way that one becomes unthinkable without the other. Thus true, genuine religion necessarily makes one a more moral person while being a moral person signifies that one has and requires true religion. None of this is correct, though - the connection between religion and morality is at best incidental. If we assume the existence of a god, even a god who has many of the traditional qualities of classical, philosophical theism, there are no particular moral values which we can derive from that premise.

Not even the quality of omnibenevolence on the part of such a god allows us to conclude that we should not kill, steal, or lie. To see how, just consider the Ten Commandments and ask yourself which, if any, necessarily follow solely from the premise that such a god exists and has revealed itself to humanity. The mere fact that a god desires what is good for us does not mean that we are obligated to do what is best and what is right.

Religion itself cannot be a source of morality unless religion is the original producer of morality - but how could such a thesis be defended? It's hardly plausible. It would make more sense to say that religion is a type of repository for moral beliefs and understandings that have developed over the years - in religion, they are preserved and passed on for future generations. Unfortunately, they also manage to preserve moral beliefs which have become outdated, if not dangerous.

For many atheists, that means that only we humans are left as the source for moral standards. Shouldn't religion focus on the ideals of adhering to moral codes out of a sense of decency and love rather than out of a fear of hell? Fortunately some do adopt this tactic; many others, though, don't seem to recognize the problem. I suppose that threats and fear must be attractive to some people because otherwise these religious groups would disappear. This raises the question, then, of why such tactics are so attractive?

We can't look outside for answers about what is wrong and what is right; instead we must look to our own relationships to determine how we are to act, both as individuals and as a species. The standards we develop may at times be helpful in those goal and, at other times, they may be harmful. But for good or for ill, the responsibility is always ours and ours alone.

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