What's the most important thing about Skeptoid? Religion as a Moral CenterSkeptoid #02 |
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Today we pull open the drawer in the motel bureau and face the need to have a Moral Center, that core set of behaviors and ethics that governs the way we conduct ourselves and live our lives.
It may shock you to learn this, but I am an atheist. I do not believe that supernatural deities exist. There's nothing evil or wrong about that. I view the Christian God in the same way that the average Christian views Shiva, Athena, or Thetans. There's nothing evil or wrong about doubting the actual divinity of those characters either. Yet a common generalization made by some religious people is that atheists lack a moral center. More than once, in late night bull sessions with religious friends, I've been told that faith is a necessary component for developing a sound moral center. The implication is that religious beliefs play an important role in the development of a normal, healthy system of ethics and personal conduct. Without religious faith, one is less likely to become a "moral" person. Thus, one of many reasons that people of religious conviction want to reach out to atheists is to help them to find a Moral Center, so we don't have a bunch of naked godless pagans running around wreaking havoc and mayhem.
My response to the religious people — after thanking them for the assumption that I am an unethical person — is to compare our Moral Centers and see where these supposed differences lie. If you knew me personally, you would probably find me to be a generally upstanding person, like yourself, who stays out of trouble, brushes his teeth, walks his kids to school, and tries not to shout too much in the library.
Like you, I am generally an honest person. I don't cheat people in business. I don't steal or commit crimes any worse than speeding on the freeway. I lie all the time, but only when the lie is a helpful one: "Yes, you look great in those parachute pants."
Like you, I play fair in sports, even against unfair opponents. I try to be a gracious loser, and occasionally even a gracious winner.
Like you, my family is the most important thing in my life. Preserving the love, trust, and happiness in my family absolutely outweighs all other priorities in my life.
Like you, I have a clear sense of right and wrong. Generally, behavior that injures someone else is wrong, and most of us avoid doing that whenever possible.
Like you, if I see a complete stranger drop their wallet — even if they're a different race and speak a different language — I'll spring into action like Batman to return it to them. It would never occur to either you or I to keep it or expect a reward for returning it.
If I see an elderly woman, I don't run over, punch her in the face and steal her purse; and neither does a religious person. But note that no religious person ever says "I would love to punch out that old woman, but I can't because God told me not to." Nobody is going to do something like that, because it's so obviously wrong. Rarely or never does a basically good person — and that's most of us — need religious commandments to stop them from doing something wrong.
In summary, my Moral Center is essentially the same as yours. It comes from the basic goodness of human nature, and my own sense of right and wrong that is universally shared among all people. It does not stem from having read any particular set of religious commandments, or from fear of punishment from a deity. Since I formed this ethical system in the lack of a religious context, how could my Moral Center be so similar to that of the average Christian or Buddhist? I argue that everyone's basic Moral Center comes from human nature, the nurture of societal interaction, and the sense of right and wrong. Since everyone already has these things, the need to credit religion as an additional source is redundant and thus wholly unnecessary.
A common retort from religious people is that God gave me those things: common sense, and the ability to tell right from wrong. If that's so, and everyone (atheists included) has been gifted with all the fundamentals needed to develop a Moral Center, then we're still left at the same place. A religious upbringing is still superfluous.
Religion is an important and favored part of life for most people. Its practice brings them satisfaction in many ways. But religion is absolutely not necessary to become a good person, or to have a sound Moral Center. Philanthropists, educators, doctors, emergency workers, and Nobel laureates have the same general breakdown of religious affiliation (including atheism) as the population at large, because they are the population at large.
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Discuss!
5 most recent comments | Show all 144 comments
Remember, you should always read with skepticism the comments of anyone too lame to put their real name & city.
Yes, I mean NO, that's completely wrong.
It's even more important to educate the 'less educated' so that they begin to take on the accountability for their actions that religion allows them to sweep under the carpet, with terms like:-
1- god told me to do it.
2- I did it because it says so in my big book, written by someone more important than any body else.
neil griffiths, Cardiff uk
December 04, 2008 3:47am
"Man's inner conscience and sense of right and wrong argue for a creator who programed that sense into man, much as we would program a computer."
What world do you live in?? If mankind were programmed to be moral by a magical creator, then we wouldn't be such bastards to each other.
Furthermore, this begs the question, where would this creator get its morals? It has to get them from outside itself, otherwise it's "guilty" of the same "sin": deciding what is right or wrong based on (gasp) its own understanding of such concepts.
Oh I forget, god gets let off the hook in EVERY theist attempt at a logical argument.
...
"that 'emptiness' many Gays say they feel"
I love how homophobes speak for other people as if they know what the hell they're talking about. And they like to pretend they're somehow helping the very group they are oppressing. It's sickening.
FYI pal, I'm gay and I don't feel any "emptiness". I have a very fulfilling life, including a wonderful partner who I've been with for five years now. We own a home together and our relationship is more loving and healthy than countless dysfunctional heterosexual relationships I've seen in my lifetime.
No, the worst feeling I get is frustration and annoyance at all the religious wackjobs constantly lying about me, spreading hatred and denying me equal rights - and of course none of them know a single goddamn thing about me as a person.
Of course you'll ignore me and go on saying that gays say they feel empty...
Eshto, Madison
December 08, 2008 12:36pm
Clearly, strict religious adherence is not essential to the developement of a strong morality, however religion is unavoidably part of the mix. The author states that human nature alone has dictated to him a sense of what is right and wrong, I disagree respectfully. Society influences what is right and wrong, not human nature. History is filled with injustices that were not widely considered immoral at the time of their transgression.
I think the developement of society is strongly intertwined with religion and that our sense of morality can not be seperated from religious thought anymore than it can be seperated from philosophical developement.
In Thomas Hobbes' "Leviathan," he theorizes that humans have developed from a lawless "state of nature," characterized by "solitary, nasty, and brutish" behavior. Humans only moved ahead from this low state of being when they accepted a "social contract" in which they ceded some "freedoms" for stability and government. I don't think this can really be disputed. But that is just my opinion. Those that do not agree with Hobbes theory will not accept anything further from this point.
The question then becomes, who decided what is right and wrong or what the "social contract" would consist of? I think religion played a very important role in answering that question. Ancient religion, not today's structured religion.
Today, religion continues to play a part in society's morality whether it's warranted or not.
Kevin, Waterford MI
December 28, 2008 9:39am
Well, it is not...
When a dog overpowers another, yet refrains from the fatal bite - is it doing it because it is a faither dog, with an understanding of a deeper moral issue given to it by a higher power?
No.
It has evolved into the dogs minds as it is into ours, through eons of evolution [selection], which is far from a perfect screening process!
But then, it has no agenda...
neil griffiths, Cardiff uk
January 06, 2009 11:50am
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Gee Miklos, not only is religion the opiate of the masses, but its and opiate that's happily prescribed by us intelligent elites to the lesser castes, the 'simple folk' beneath us.
I respect that you don't even try to hide your contempt or class hatred. Good on ya.
Morgan, Tracy, CA
December 02, 2008 7:57am