Do you believe people can live ethically with out religion?

Question

Think of someone you know that is not religious: Are they ethical? If they accepted God into their life, would they SUDDENLY be more ethical? Some gangster rappers believe in God, yet they talk about killing and dealing drugs while some athiest do neither... What do you think?

Answer 1

After reading this forum for a while, including countless variations of this question, I've arrived at the current working hypothesis:

Some Christians REQUIRE their religion in order to live ethically, while most atheists are sufficiently ethical on their own. In other words, the most inherently and naturally ethical people are those who don't need religion.

Answer 2

Yes, I think there are many more ways to be fooled than be right with your God. I was asked once by people about Jim Jones, like all Christians have to answer for all of the religious fanatics of the world. He was the guy that drank tained kool-aide with poison. and from 400-800 followers died ? for some reason the number kept changing as more bodies appeared to make the incident seem worst. Anyways my answer to this question was I do not care what a religious person wants to do to himsel or an athiest, but when he thinks he is helping God by killing me, that would be a reason for concern. So if someone minds his own business then his business is not mine to say, this world is setting a stage in America to kill lots of Christians for God, and everybody is just sitting around wondering and waiting for this to happen. Our countries religious people will answer to God for all the damage they have caused, and people they have killed. Athiest are not know to kill so freely as a religious person

Answer 3

There is such a thing as "civil righteousness". It has little to do with God other than that God has put His law in every person's heart. It is not perfect, but people most often know when they do right or wrong. And many people really want to do right.... for whatever reason.

These people can be very "ethical" in the view of comon sense and getting along with others.

But God is not about human ethics. He is about being our God: creator, judge and the only One who wants what is best for us in this life and who wants us to be with Him in fellowship when we die and leave these bodies.

God is not about the ethics of man. These change at a whim and at a bias towards some.

God IS about love, which is different than ethics. Ethics are what you can get by with. Love goes far beyond ethics. And God's love is sacrificial - sacrificing self for others.....just as He sacrificed Himself on the cross when He came to earth to redeem us from the folly of our sins.

Believing that there is a God means very little. The devil believes that there is a God! It doesn't do him any good or change him.

Answer 4

Sometimes a person can be changed for the better by religion, sometimes they cant. Not all religious folks are good people and not all Atheists are bad. The difference between a bad Atheist and a bad Christian (or someone of any religion) is the bad Atheist feels no remorce because he doesnt feel he has anyone to answer to. A bad religious person will often use their religion to justify it. I know as far as myself goes, becoming a Christian has had a big part in changing me into a better person, and I strive to get better and better. Thats not to say the same is true for everyone who "finds religion" but I have yet to meet a person who got out of religion because it was MAKING them a bad person. Leave because there are bad people in it? Yes... but I havent met an Atheist say "I was a Christian but I was becoming a bad person so I got out". Bad people are bad people, religion or lack of religion has little to do with it. Those who want to be good people will be.

And on another note, belief in God does not make a person saved, Christian or otherwise.. Satan also believes in God.

Answer 5

Ethics and Morals are two different things. Morals stem from some concept of absolute principals, as ordained by a religious authority. They sometimes do not make logical sense, as morals are a precept of a religious body, and so, sometimes only make sense in the context of that religion.

Ethics are precepts, or a code of conduct, which is not based off of a religious authority, ofttimes Ethics are based off of logical discourse, and ofttimes have at their root a philosophical concept as it's basis.

Christian Morality, as an example, has as it's basis, teachings from the bible, and more often than not, is based off of the interpretation of biblical concepts as interpreted by religious authority. In olden times, the Bible was written in Latin, with reading being the domain of only the educated, and the priest being the only person allowed to read and interpret Biblical concepts.

Ethics is from philosophical discourse, and ofttimes Logical argument is considered more important than referring to an authority. While there is some reference to ethical works of the past, these are not taken as authoritative, but merely starting points for ideas and discussions.

So, in effect, if your life is not ruled by Morality, then there will be some form of Ethics involved in that life, tho that Ethics will be based on whatever philosophical concept which is the basis for your reality tunnel.

Answer 6

There are also people out there that go to church and do all this partying every Friday and Saturday night before they have to go to church the next day. Everyone has different beliefs and morals. I believe in God and go to church. But for those that don't believe in religion, there are different ways to be a good human. As long as you believe you have a purpose in life, whether it be being a good friend, husband, teacher, lawyer, artist, doctor, etc you can live a good life ethically. A good person is someone with good intentions. If you believe in doing good onto others and act as a good person, you'll be able to live peacefully.

Answer 7

There is always a way, that one can keep themselves ethical, but there are levels of ethics. You have business ethics, that are rarely based on moral principles and other degrees of ethics.

One can have religious ethics and yet not be a moral person--because of perversions in religion & in the way people put their interpretation of the Bible.

The highest ethics are found in the Bible because the claim is that it contains God's ethics.Jesus always honored the ethics of his God & Father & of the ethics found in the Scriptures.

Answer 8

I think people can live ethically without religion.

I used to know some Christians that throught it was OK to do black magic ie praying for something bad to happen to someone so they would find Jesus.

Christianity does not mean the person is good, nor is a pagan or athiest automatically bad.

Answer 9

Of course they can, following rules for your morals is not being a moral person.

It is better to be a righteous person and to not believe in a dogmatic ethical rule book, which makes very little sense anyway, than being an immoral person that follows the ruls that they think god has set for them, for their own personal gain to go to heaven.

If the only reason that you act morally the way you do because your following rules then you're by definition a psycopath.

Answer 10

I know you can. I did for 25yrs. If you were to ask anyone who knew me, you would get a positive answer. After a while, I finally realized the difference between our definition of ethics and morality, and the perfect morality of God. There is no comparison. Hang your hopes on the idea that you'll go to heaven because you've been "good" and you lose. Being "good" is Santa's requirement. God's is perfection, and He knows we can't meet His standards, that's why He died for us.