Why do some people think that you must have religion to have moral standards?

Question

It's such a shame that so many people can only chose right / wrong if there is some eternal reward or punishment.

Answer 1

People who are religious cannot ever possibly understand what it is like to be freed from such a corrupting influence. I am as moral as the next person, and yet I consider religion to be a plague on our earth.

Answer 2

Some people have a harder time with morality than others. People who have a serious struggle with sex or drugs or alcohol or whatever need the support or a religion with a powerful system of rewards and punishments. Remember the televangelists who preached so vehemently about sexual sins and then wound up being caught in the act themselves. People who aren't tempted by something don't need to rant about it and don't need a major religion to keep them out of trouble. It sort of makes me wonder what is going on with all those people who rant about the evils of homosexuality. Is fear of hell the only thing keeping them from jumping into the haystack?

Answer 3

I think when you have a religion you have moral standards that are apart from yourself, whereas when you do not have a religion, your moral standards are pretty much whatever seems right in your own opinion at the time.

When you set your own moral standards it's like letting a worker set his own payrate, or letting the lunatics run the insane asylum. The whole idea is we don't have a perfectly accurate measure of right and wrong inside ourselves because we might be wrong and how will we know unless we have an outside source?

It's like calibrating a scale - if you don't calibrate the scale, you will never get an accurate measurement, in the same way if you don't have an absolute standard, right and wrong are relative, subjective, and therefore meaningless.

Answer 4

I concur completely.
It seems that, without a metaphysical gun to their heads, many people are raised in such a way that they'd have no reason to be humane in the absence of their religion.

Answer 5

I agree.
I was watching 30 days last night where an atheist went and lived with some christians. The christian dude kept acting like atheist children grow up violent and mean and lawless because they don't have god in their lives and therefore have no reason to be 'good people'. Hello!?! Talk about your basic ignorance.

Answer 6

You answered your own question. For many of these folks, only the threat of eternal torment is sufficient to prevent them from committing immoral acts and only the promise of eternal bliss keeps them believing in God. I call faith an insurance policy on the afterlife.

Answer 7

Because with faith comes the Holy Spirit into the life that personnaly helps to withstand the evil. Its one thing to have moral standards and quite another to live them out.

Answer 8

Because they are not mature enough to do what is correct without the fear of punishment. Therefore they think everyone else must be as immature as they are.

Answer 9

morals are taught by parents usually. Religion is also taught by parents. Spiritual rebirth has nothing to do with religion or parents.

Answer 10

religion is bullshit i am more of a spiritual person than a religious one and yet ppl think i have no reason to live because i dont believe in no body, well thats not true i dont have to believe in no body I BELIEVE IN MYSELF. i would also like to add that i believe in GOD although i dont know what is GOD maybe a higher intelligence??