Is God a requirement for morality?

Question

Do you only perform good works because of a fear or feeling of obligation to a diety? If there were no god, would we all be cast into a mosh pit of sin and destruction ... all seeking to do harm to others?

Or can morality exist without religion?

Several religions take a somewhat neutral stance on morality ... Buddhism and Taoism are reasonable examples, though they may still contain some essence. But what of atheists? Are they all immoral creatures? Or is the morality present in those individuals who do not subscribe to a morally-guided faith evidence morals can and do exist outside of religion?

Do you help others solely because you wish for them to help you in return? Or is there something more.

Is the only thing keeping you from slaughtering your co-workers the desire to not be cast into the pit of Hell (or other suffering to yourself)?

Answer 1

No, I do not believe God equals morality, or that there must be belief in God to have a moral base, but it is easy to see that, especially when concerning ourselves to the eras in which religious belief arose, the need for a general fear of retribution for wrongful acts.

Morality is subjective on an individual level, but it must be objective when applied to a society; one individual may feel it is all right to murder, rape, steal, etc., but a society as a whole must know these things are wrong, and those individuals who would go against that be removed from society (jail, exile, capital punishment, etc.)

So, belief in God is not a requirement for morality, but rather a necessary belief for some individuals who might otherwise feel obliged to remove conscience from their application of morality, i.e., even if I don't get punished now, the afterlife will get me, and so on.

Once a person understands that they can cause pain, and that it is wrong, and they no longer want to do that, they have acheived the right level of morality; some people learn this when they hit a sibling or a pet as a child, some learn when being cruel to classmates or the class nerd, some never learn at all.

If we, as a race, could grasp the concept of morality on its own virtue, and not because of fear of divine retribution, then we could turn away from controlling religious dogma and instead believe with free will in the creation of our choice.

Answer 2

Morality totally exists apart from religion. Some of the most moral people I know are atheists. They base their morality then on consequences and the fact that they would like a certain outcome for their life that is positive and not on religion. Personally, my life is not what you describe at all - although I am a Christian. I've been given a gift - a gift that changes my character and actions. My good works are a result of that gift and not an obligation or out of fear at all. God has given people a conscience regardless of whether or not they refuse to accept him. Some people null their consciences by continuing to do wrong so often that they don't know what is right and wrong anymore. What keeps me from hurting others is the gift. If someone gave you a billion dollars - I would think - you wouldn't have a need to steal right? If God has given me forgiveness and restored relationship through His Son - the more I learn about and understand the gift - the more I understand that I have no need to hurt others because there's no motivation, my personal needs have been more than fulfilled making me free to love people and restraining any desire to hurt and to help them be free as well.

Answer 3

There's no such thing as objective morality at all. Why didn't you just talk about that? Torturing innocents is immoral because we feel bad about it. That's it. lol. You know why? Because the universe does not assign moral values to anything. It doesn't think a sun is good or that shade is evil. Morality is a human invention, just like the idea of "purpose." Moral values can only be ascertained with basic moral assumptions: God-says-it, human dignity, individual liberty etc. These are just assumptions though.

Answer 4

God empowers representatives to enlighten us about these things.

If we do not believe in God as a Supreme Being we may still be able to recognize that if we do good to others then there are normally good results.

It is best if we can accept a God as a Supreme Person for then we can accept all of the instructions of His qualified representatives. Absorption in this understanding should reinforce our ability to think of other in a better way.

God is All Good since after all He is the source of all things. That would have to be the ultimate positive force. Goodness is actually a positive force. God being the source of all things and everyone also means that we are part and parcel of God. We are of the same nature as God though minute in comparison.

We can mechanically try to do good, do what is right, do what is moral, do what is ethical, and this will put us in line with our true eternal self; but, ultimately we will automatically always do good as we realize our true eternal self. And our true eternal self is in immediate relationship with this Supreme Divine Being.

If we can at least accept the existence of a Supreme Being on faith and associate with Him through mantra meditation then by that association we will gradually restore our true all-good eternal self.

Answer 5

Doing good or being moral to appease or obey God or to get a reward in heaven are all major ego things. I've heard people equate atheism with just doing whatever you want without thoughts of consequence; this reflects an immature perspective of spirituality and god where the mindset is, again, to behave and do good because there's this deity that will hold one accountable. One does good and is moral because one realizes there are other beings that have the same experiences as us -- and, therefore, has compassion from one's own experience of suffering.

Answer 6

God is not a requirement for morality.

I do good things and help others because I feel it is the right thing to do, I never even think about religion when I do it. I do it because more often than not I have gone through something similar to what they are going through and would have liked it if someone was there for me at the time. I never expect them to do anything for me in return, and will probably never see many of those people ever again.

As dumb as it sounds I like to do decent things for people, and I feel good about myself when I do. Although I'm a believer I don't usually consider whether the act I am doing will get me to Heaven or not, I do it because it is the right or 'humane' thing to do, regardless of whether there is a God or not.

I beleive doing right things because they are right will get a person to Heaven (if there is one) quicker than showing off to God and saying see I did that.

Answer 7

Fear of death and/or negative consequences is what most people base their sense of morals on. God gave us morals in the Bible. Christians perform good works out of a motivation of unconditional love for their fellow fallen beings. Some may think they're earning brownie points with God, but that's NOT how it works... We're extending the same unmerited favor given us from God as we pass it on to the rest of His creation... See a need, fill a need... BE the blessing... "To give a love, you've got to live a love... To live a love, you've got to be part of..."

Answer 8

okay, first let me state that my morality does not come as a result of fear or obligation to God. Just as I expect my children to obey me because they love and trust me and know that I love them and have their best interests at heart , I obey God because I know He is real, He is my creator and knows me inside and out, He knows what is best for me in all aspects of my life and I trust in that.
Most of our 'moral codes' today are based on the ten commandments and God's perfect instruction. Without that, what is your foundation for what is moral or not.
Like a child telling another child- you cannot touch that, well the first response is "says who?" If there is an authority behind the instruction, then the child (assuming there is a respect for authority) will be less likely to do what is wrong, but if there is no answer to 'says who' then why is it wrong? who says it is immoral, by what guidelines do we go by for morality.
For an athiest, who says that we all turn to worm food in the end, why would it matter if someone took another's life- how we lived life on earth would not maake a lick of difference if there were no one to be accoutable to and nothing more to look forward to. To someone from particular religions in this world, child sacrifice is perfectly acceptable, others think it is completely moral to fly airplanes into buildings and take innocent lives, others feel that morality is a passive existence that is tolerant to every sin on the face of the planet (unless it infringes upon them) So where do we get our moral code if not for God, who decides what is right or wrong and what makes that person more of an authority than any other?
Not believeing in god or creating one of your own imagination comes from a lack of respect for authority and a fleshly desire to not have to answer to anyone in the end - the fact is we all have to operate under authority for our own protection and our own good- There is an ultimate authority who has given us the instruction to live a moral AND blessed life- and because He loves us He wants us to follow the moral code He has set before us because we love Him and trust that He loves us and knows us- not because we fear going to hell- though that will be the natural consequence believing in Him and receiving the gifts He has given us in order to avoid that

Answer 9

Morality is a byproduct of Causality. If something morally correct its effect with cause the least amount of harm and do the most amount of good and vice versa.

God is irrelevant. Christian extremists tout a version of morality that seems to say if it were found tomorrow that god doesn't exist then they would become the worst kinds of criminals.

Answer 10

"If there were no god, would we all be cast into a mosh pit of sin and destruction ...?" As a believer in God myself, I find that question hard to answer. If there were no God, the universe as we know it would probably not exist. I think, however, that you meant "If there were no belief in god(s) ...". That question is more relevant to the rest of the question.
To put it briefly, the answer to your question is no. God, in some certain defined form or nature, is not a requirement for morality; unless of course morality is defined as belief in some particular form of God (a strange definition, but one that many, many people follow). In my book, morality is a sense of commitment to a set of principles that one can define as good. A sense of what is good and what is bad exists in every human being - a result of both social norms and behaviours and of an inner sense that some would call conscience, although I believe that conscience is only a part of it. Doing what is good, hard as it may be, requires tremendous amounts of will power and self-confidence - a challenge above all others. The harder the challenge, the greater the reward; many people rise to the challenge and reap the benefits. Doing the hard but right thing, for the sake of virtue itself, give one a sense of accomplishment unparallelled by anything in the world.
At this point, I would like to take issue with the answer posted by wolfgangmeyers, and many other like it. The act of doing something good for the sake of the heavenly reward is not only valued in many belief systems, it is sometimes considered to be the only motivation toward good deeds that actually elevates one's soul. In other words, good deeds for their own sake are nice enough, but it is only when one does good deeds with the sole purpose of becoming closer to God that they are truly blessed. In Islam, for example (I grew up a Muslim), many scholars consider doing a good deed for it's own sake or as a result of one's own inner feelings and sense of accomplishment a base, earthly, selfish action. These are goals other than to please God and fulfill our debt toward Him, therefore they can never truly bring our souls closer to Him (the ultimate goal of existence). I personally don't agree with this view, but many people defend it to the death.