Do people need to fear a higher authority to be moral?

Question

Based on my last question, I had to ask. As an atheist, I don't worry about being judged in the next life. I have to worry about being judged now. Does the fear of final judgement make people moral? Would the lack of the fear of damnation cast some people adrift without a moral compass? If you can absolve all you sins, does that allow you to commit them? Since I don't fear Gods' wrath, why do I still have a moral compass? Or does it all boil down to conscience?

Who says people of different views cannot get along? The civilty all of you expressed gives me confidence in man. Thank you. You all made MY day.

Answer 1

I think that fear of society's judgment is at least as great a motivator or inhibitor of behavior as fear of a wrathful God.

Answer 2

to answer your question, on earth as far as fearing higher authority, authority being people, no, but it helps, it is proven to help us become moral, prisons do it all the time, churches help, military helps, etc. Let me ask u a question, do u not have a moral compass for a reason, maybe a set of past experiances have made or molded your moral compass, im pretty sure that higher authority was involved in many of those scenarios. Now we are talking about God, well i do care what people think of me, but i care even more of what god might think of me if i just so happened to find a heaven or a hell when i die. My Life insurance, is my moral compass. And so far ive found nothing wrong with living that was, people become less obtsrusive on my hard working mind.

Answer 3

You can certainly be moral without the need to fear a higher authority. (btw- the term "fearing God" is largely misunderstood. The word translated as "fearing" more accurately means "standing in reverent awe" - not like freaked out and scared)

The existence of moral absolutes is a key arguement for the existence of God. No matter where you go in the world stealing is generally frowned upon - ususally killing is too.
There are so many differences from culture to culture how is it possible that people on the other side of the world would have common morals?
If we're really just flesh and bone - just a coincidental mixing of elements where does this morality come from? Do carbon, hydrogen and oxygen know right from wrong?
The only thing I can think of is that God transcends culture, distance and time and built a certain understanding of morality into all of us (even though not everyone chooses to follow it).

Answer 4

Great insight...I'm sure you'll receive a lot of flak for this question, but I think you've hit the nail on the head. Some people wouldn't do the right thing if they didn't think something was always watching and had universal knowledge. It's somewhat similar to the way that people can't accept that once a loved one dies, they are just dead. If there is no afterlife, isn't that a terrible thought? Well it is, but probably reality. People don't want to (and some can't) accept that so they make the arguement that the person's body is only dead not their soul. It makes us feel bette to know that grandma is still around somewhere rather than think her life (as ours will) is just over. I actually wish I could believe in the afterlife the way a lot of people do, I've even tried to, but I just can't seem to convince myself that I should...

Answer 5

Here's a better perspective I hope for you:

Atheist or not ask me this question - during your limited time on Earth, would you rather be the one who truly left the world somehow a better place?

Less crime, less pollution, less corruption, less perversion, etc...

Or would you rather say "hey, I'm gonna live like there's no tomorrow cause I say there's not! Jesus and everyone else but me are all idiots, only I know the REAL way - the REAL truth and I ALONE control my full destiny and impact on the lives of others.

Does the Golden Rule influence you at all in your daily walk?

Has the story of the Good Samaritan ever made you stop and think?

Would you rather "follow the crowd" and find the "wide road" many walk and never know till till late it was a dead-end?

Or would you rather self-sacrifice if needed help others and see them help others in turn - along the way you discover the narrow path "and few shall find it"

Call it whatever term you like vocabulary doesn't matter.

There's one universal law of life ask anyone 65 or older:

"What goes around, good or bad, eventually comes back around again"

Or as a country song once said "Whatever you do today you have to sleep with tonight." You gotta stand for something or you'll fall for anything.

As an atheist, I want to say two final thoughts to you:

1. Inside his heart, Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus was an atheist but he was chosen anyway.

2. If you look at how Madelyn Murray O'Hare (a "hero" to your "movement" died) see it up close and personal - always know God is never mocked.

Just like the man in Hell says in a Bible passage when he asks Father Abraham for a drop of cool water and Abraham says "There is a great divide I can't cross to reach you, I'm sorry!"

and the man answers "Please Lord, go tell my brothers and father before it's too late this place is real so they can have time to be saved.'

Jesus answers "My son, they have the law and the prophets. if they won't listen to them and gain wisdom they won't hear me either."

May God Have mercy upon you!

Remember, rejecting Jesus is your "right" and "option" but as long as you live trust me He will never ever reject you!

Go in peace....

Answer 6

Our Creator knows what we need and how we are to live. That is where morality comes from - living immorally tears people down, that is very evident.
People rebel and do not realize that living in God's principles give us the greatest life, not following ourselves.
Believers will sin because they are fallen like all people,but do not want to sin. The Bible says not to sin just because you are going to be forgiven - that would be a mocking of God's grace.
What you are talking about is evidence that God exists - do you see?
There is a right and a wrong - that comes from him - but we have the choice to acknowledge it or not.
When people say the do not see God - look at things like morality, wisdom, kindness, love, grace, beauty - those are the things that are his image.

Such a great question - thanks.

Answer 7

If we do not believe in a personal God then nature has some features we cannot help but be influenced by. Death is one of these features. Death is a normal element of material existence. Death is one of the most prominent concerns even for the atheist, so in a way death is like unto god for the atheist. Correct me if I am missing something here.

Nature somehow has a way of punishing us for our sins whether we accept a personal force behind nature's actions or not. If we do bad karma then bad karma might come back to us one way or another, sooner or later.

If we believe in the existence of God as a personal Supreme Being more or less, then the lowest level of understanding is to fear God. As we become more advanced intellectually and spiritually we may start to perceive God in a more personal way.

Answer 8

Not necessarily but it sure helps. In the Catholic church they can get absolution from their sins by going to the priest and confessing them and then saying certain prayers over and over. Then the next week they are right back with the same thing. If it is done as God says in His Book, you resolve not to do it again and then you are forgiven. Then you rely on God's power to help keep you from doing it again. In this sense it would cause you to do it more as you can just go back and be resolved from it week to week if you do it the Catholic way but doing it God's way it would help deter you from wanting to do it again. I think a conscience is your moral compass that God gave you to know you are doing wrong. Trouble is that most do not pay attention to it.

Answer 9

No... Just religious people.

You have a moral compass because when you do something bad to another person, you ultimately know that you wouldn't like it being done to yourself.

It always scares me when religious folk say that without religion there would be no right or wrong - according to their logic, if one of them becomes disillusioned and leaves their religion they think it will suddenly be okay to rape and murder people. I think atheists have a far better moral code than religious people, because atheists can work out on their own what is right and wrong, whereas religious folk need a religious text to tell them.

Answer 10

No, however the fact is when there isn't an absoulute moral truth like the Bible men start to sway from it. What happens is what is happening now. The laws and society in America is becoming more and more set apart from the Word of God.

Once that happens laws are based upon the swaying likes and dislikes of man. It was told once that "Law without an absoultute moral truth isn't law at all"

Answer 11

I believe in a higher power, but I dont pray or go to church or by any means worship this higher power. But I have morals that were enstilled in me by my parents at a very young age and others that I developed myself. Fear is the wrong motivation for anything. I want my kids to obey me because they love me not because they fear me. I think it was good to go to iraq (in the beginning) to liberate and help those people but not because I feared they had WMDs. Thats is whats wrong with religion, they want people to do what they say and they use fear to accomplish this, the end DOESNT justify the means.