Thread: Do we need religion to have morals?

Originally Posted by StephenT

No.

Please explain.

Are you of the view that 'morals' are hardwired into your DNA like some sort of instinct, or you make them up as you see fit?

Underlined and bolded make everything authoritarian.

Do you need a set of instructions to use a toothpick?

Originally Posted by Seismosaur

Do you need a set of instructions to use a toothpick?

Do you consciously try to be stupid or does it come natural?

Originally Posted by Good as Gold

Do you consciously try to be stupid or does it come natural?

What the hell?

Originally Posted by Seismosaur

What the hell?

i agree with Seis, i don't see what was wrong with his comparison really...

Well i certainly wouldn't say religious people are more moral as their are many religious criminals and i believe statistically, even when you take into the account the fact their are many more religious people then Atheists in America their are still more religious prisoners then Atheist ones.

Religious base themselves on morals but morals must have existed before them. Although this is not a perfect example if you look at pack animals, when one of the pack is injured, the others often do supply them with food. This doesn't happen with all species but some do look out for each other at least a little, an elephant appears to mourn it's dead child and other elephants lead it away, that my be simplistic but it show you how morals can develop even in non-sentient beings.

No, morality is something that is an evolutionary by-product that happened to be advantageous for social creatures like ourselves. We are all born with a capacity to learn morality, just in the same way we are born with the capacity to learn language. Religion is not needed for either.

Morality is a completely subjective concept though, one which relies on the perceptions of the individual and the society/community/group/etc that individual interacts with. Objectively though, there is nothing stopping us from doing anything we want, whether it is acts of altruism, or acts of wanton destruction. However, we act upon what is profitable for the community/group and ourselves, and avoid what is not, using morality to justify such actions and to promote social cohesion.

Do we need religion? I think it's impossible to base your morals on religion, given the stupidity and hypocrisy of most religious texts. Nobody bases their morals on religion. Some try, but they still end up ignoring certain parts.

Originally Posted by Good as Gold

Please explain.

Are you of the view that 'morals' are hardwired into your DNA like some sort of instinct, or you make them up as you see fit?

Underlined and bolded make everything authoritarian.

I'm not educated in psychology or biology to make an assumption of the creation of morality.

However, the suggestion that morality is God given or spread by religion can be denounced with common sense or research.

If morals were God given, nobody would be immoral. However, it is quite clear that there are many immoral people, and that everybody will be slightly immoral at some point in their life. A fundamentalist might say something like, "Immoral people refuse God's gifts." If this were the case, all Atheists would be immoral. I remember reading a study a while back which showed that non-religious inmates occupy less than 1% of jails. Statistically, they should occupy 16%. This also denounces that morality is spread by religion, which would mean that anybody who hasn't at least been the subject of a conversion attempt would be immoral.

The concept of morality being spread by religion also portrays religion as a nearly perfect example of morality, although it is a major contributor to war, segregation, and hate.

Originally Posted by StephenT

I remember reading a study a while back which showed that non-religious inmates occupy less than 1% of jails. Statistically, they should occupy 16%. This also denounces that morality is spread by religion, which would mean that anybody who hasn't at least been the subject of a conversion attempt would be immoral.

It really depends on how you read that statistic. It could just mean that the other 15% of atheists are better at not getting caught in the crimes they do commit

(For the dense among us, that was a joke.)

Originally Posted by Alextanium

It really depends on how you read that statistic. It could just mean that the other 15% of atheists are better at not getting caught in the crimes they do commit

(For the dense among us, that was a joke.)

Ha ha... yes... a joke >.>;

*runs for the hills*