Morality is a topic that has been debated for centuries among Philosophers. God is often cited as the source of all morality. Morality is one of the main issues that convinced Atheist Leah Libresco of the existence of God and compelled her to convert to Catholicism. (http://sacerdotvs.blogspot.com/2012/06/atheist-blogger-libresco-converts-to.html)
- Do we need God to be moral?
- Does morality come from God or do we develop them?
- Is morality an objective truth or a subjective development relative to culture and society?
Thanks for keeping this question going but I will give you the settling point for me: The issue is what are known as "God given rights." If you don't believe God gave you rights then you must believe the government gave you rights - by default that has to be true. If not tell me where your rights come from. Technically rights come from human struggle inspired by God. If you believe rights come from the government then you get your rights from crooks called politicians. Think of that concept I just laid out.
ReplyDeleteHere is the settling point for me. I don't have to have some form of absolute sort of proof devised by man, I only have to know God thinks enough of his creation to inspire us to fight for what is good and rights that are call inalienable. That is the weight of evidence that makes me believe in God.
However I have heard it said that the reason that Christians are more moral than others is that is how one behaves because one does fear the judgement of God. I believe this as well.
Take that for what you may consider of it.
I have an education blog where I study the ethics of the school loan debt crisis, and discuss other education ethic issues called www.EducationBubbleAndScamReport.com Stop by and take a look.
Thanks,
Ed
The morals of "God" are stated in every version of the bible, conveniently remade over time as it's always been a man made story and the re-writers of it tweek a few things, presumably to suit a slightly more modern approach. But let's assume that the bible is the word of God, like most (I imagine all) Christians do, for the moment. If you use the bible (words of God) as your moral guide, do you kill non-believers? Do you subjugate women? Do you murder homosexuals? I should hope not, but if you use the bible as your guide to morality, you would be doing all those things and much more, listed in the 20 verses of the bible that condone such "righteousness". If, however, you uphold what you believe to be the "good" bits of the bible (i.e. treat others how you would want to be treated, don't cheat on your loved one etc.)and leave things like murdering homosexuals out, then you are just cherry picking to suit your own needs. And to cherry pick from such things, you need morality. Morality is of use to different degrees, in different forms with different people, simply because it's a man-made thing. You don't need the bible to understand "Treat people how you would want to be treated.". The first thing that I can think of for this fetid attempt at an excuse for morality from religion is that many people are probably afraid of having that power: the power of decision making and judgment. Becoming an Atheist from a religion is like stepping out of a dark cave for the first time: the light will hurt at first, but with time, courage, intellect and willpower, you will easily see that the world is much more colorful, beautiful and much more vast than your little cave. If you don't understand that last point, study Plato's cave allegory.
ReplyDeleteConsider me a follower of this blog and I hope that we can continue to have more civilized discussions in the future.