Who decides what is right or wrong?

Question

If you don't believe in God, or any other spiritual figure, then how do you know what is right or wrong? If we are just a bunch of cells put together by some random chance, and if we survived by natural selection, then really there are no rules. Who is to say that murder is wrong, or that stealing isn't OK. We can create laws that say what the majority thinks should happen, but really how do you honestly tell someone that something they did is wrong.
I am not trying to be rude or ignorant, I honestly am interested in peoples opinions.
If we come across a culture that has no laws and they sacrifice children as a ritual, can you really say that they are wrong? It isn't a law to them, so why is it wrong?
I think it is wrong, and it seems obvious to me, but that is because I believe in God and his teachings.

Ok, so to go off of what some said. Someone said that we should live according to what we would want to happen to us. Some people out there like different things than I do. What about petifiles? They think that what they do is OK, so what tells them that they are wrong if there is no God. Yes, it seems like common sense to me and most people, but what about to the petifile? He believes that it is OK.

Ok, someone also said that even people who don’t believe in God live moral lives. So what is a moral life to an atheist? Because a lot of atheist out there believe many different things. One atheist believes that abortion is wrong while another believes that it is OK. Which one is right in a godless world? See where I am going with this. You say that we are taught by our teachers and what not, so who taught them and so on.

Answer 1

The only way to derive an answer as to whether something is right or wrong is through our human conscience.

The only way a human being could possibly have a conscience is if an all-knowing God put it in us.

As the Bible says, "I will write my laws upon their hearts".

Peace

Answer 2

Moral decisions are much deeper than what is presented in the Bible. If you don't already know that murder is wrong before you read the ten commandments than the Bible isn't going to convince you of it.

People do not draw their morality from the Bible. Think of the story of Sodom. When the rapsits come to Lots door looking to rape the traveller who is staying with Lot's family, Lot does not give him up. Instead he throws his do daughters outside and asks that they rape them instead. That does not quite mesh with modern Christian Morals.

Also the Bible had no problem with beating your wife, or slavery. These were accepted practices and the Bible does not speak out against them.

Our morality is formed by cultural norms not by a book.

If you would like to know more about it there is an excellent book called "Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon" which discusses how the ideas of religion and of morality both rose through the process of natural selection.

Answer 3

Well, if you think about the thinks that you, yourself wouldn't like to happen, then you would know what things might be wrong. If the idea of getting beaten up, raped, mugged or murdered does not appeal to you, then it would probably not be very appealing to other people, don't you think? And if you wouldn't want your child to be cut up in some sort of ritual, then probably other parents wouldn't like that either. It's really just common sense you know. You don't need an imaginary deity to tell you that.

Answer 4

Well it is a valid question and I can't say I have a full answer for it. But the lack of an answer on my part does not mean that God exists. It merely means that his creation by humans has some merit.

Additionally, I would argue that in the absence of God we can define a system of ethics for treating one another. They are of course subjective, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't be useful.

Answer 5

well i'm agnostic and anyway i was taught right and wrong from my mother and she raised me by herself without my father i might add anyway she taught me right from wrong and i apply everything that she taught me and of course everything comes down to a matter of empathy reason logic and common sense of course murder is wrong especially if it's done for sport anyway a person doesn't have to be religious to behave in a moral way anybody can have morals such as satanists atheists agnostics christians buddhists hindus muslims and so on and so on just like anybody can be immoral as well oh and by the way that's what the law is for as well to punish those guilty of commiting crimes

Answer 6

I have tried many times to understand how people cannot know that the reason they these things to be wrong is because God placed them in their heart. I can't answer your question because I ask the same question.

Answer 7

The little voice inside you that tells you " Don't do it " is what tells you it is wrong. That is the voice of " conscience" which is built into our hearts not in the brain. And it is a mystery as to where it comes from, except to those who believe in God.

Answer 8

You can't honestly say somebody is right or wrong. They can be correct or incorrect or accurate or inaccurate or even acceptable or unacceptable.... but right and wrong are about the same as good and evil... statements of opinion. The only right and wrong is in your head, and it's determined by popular thought.

Answer 9

people who dont believe in God can be every bit as moral as those who do ...
and they are if the prison system statistics are anything to go by ....
they have parents who teach them , teachers , and a CONSCIENCE
i worry about people who need a God to keep them right ... would you do harm to others if you had no belief in God ?

Answer 10

Everyone knows the difference between right and wrong. Although im strating to think that what we once thought was good is actually turning bad and what was bad is turning good. Its not good!