Are morals really Christian?

Question

There is a pre-disposition amongst some Christian groups that only Christians can have and adhere to morals (similarly goes to most religion groups); a sense of hierarchy that separates them from us. But are morals just basically the rights and wrongs in a given society that is often fuelled more by conscience that religion?

Discuss.

Answer 1

God gave us the ability to think
those who do, believe in Him

Answer 2

No. But there are Christian morals.

But at the same time, those can't really be said to be consistent. They change over time. The death penalty is now wrong, where once it was right.

Also, Christian morals are not necessarily superior to society's morals.

There are two flaws with Christian morals, from my perspective. The first is that they are not earned. When you are told what is and is not moral you do not thinking for yourself.

The second flaw is how slow they are in changing. Which means they are often considerably behind society.

Edit: Just looked through the other answers and saw something worth commenting on.
"Example: The Nazis thought it was moral and right to kill Jews. Who can say they were wrong?? Unless you believe that God said "Thou shalt not do murder"....where does one get the moral authority? "Because it's wrong?" No. If you were a Nazi in 1938, it was perfectly acceptable. Der Fuhrer said so."

What is wrong with this example? Well, Germany was a Christian country and Hitler was raised a Roman Catholic. Doesn't this suggest that the religious morals are secondary to those of society?

I can't explain how the genocide was possible in moral, religious or human terms. But saying that it's an example of how religious morals are better than the individual's or society's is false.

Answer 3

I think what they mean is only Christians have a standard set of morals that must be followed strictly, but as we see here everyday most Christians pick and choose which ones thaey want to follow and the homosexuality morals of the bible lets them off the hook for all the things they do which the bible forbids. It is easy to be moral if you have no problem with it.

In reality every society has had morals, even primitive societies. Moral is what determines what is legal and what is illegal in a non religious setting. That is why this country is not Christian because it is founded on religious freedom, not Christian religious freedom. Many signers of the constitution and declarration of Independance had some idea of a god or creator, but no actual religious beleifs as far as doctrine goes. when they used the term God, it meant only that they felt there was some kind of creator and it did nothing to establish a state religion, on the contratry, it forbids a state religion, so those who say this is a Christian country are trying to establish a state religion, which our constitutation is agaisnt and forbids.

Having laws against murder, stealing, and all those that are meant to protect us are in fact moral laws, It comes from a sense of morality. Christians just get upset because this country does not tell homosexuals thay are immoral. I think whatever happens between consenting adults is non of the governments business as long as it is between adults and hurts no one.

Answer 4

It is ridiculous for anyone to think that only Christians have morals although we do get out guide line of morals from bible. Without the 10 commandments we wouldn't know what was right or wrong. Sure you can argue your conscience would guide you but that is not always the case. Look at Jeffery Dahmer. If we had his morals we would all be having human for dinner. He didn't think there was anything wrong with what he did until someone told him it was wrong....Now for the moment that will send non-believers into a tail spin. While in prison Dahmer said several weeks before he was murdered that he had accepted Christ as Savior. According to God's Word (and only God knows if He really accepted Christ) He is in Heaven right now. So if that is true can you really say Christians believe they are better than you when Dahmer would seem to be at the bottom of the Christian food chain?

Answer 5

When many Christian groups talk about morals they really only mean sexual morality. The world has moved on. Morals are Christian because of the universal message of Christ that is glossed over by these groups. What about the morals of killing other human beings, whether in a so-called "just war" or for self defense?

My best advise is to read the scriptures for yourself and search for the truth written on your heart before you pay much attention to Christian groups preaching up sin.

Answer 6

No. If that were true, then there would be no morality, except with Christians, and Christian morality would be unchanged throughout history. Both of those are demonstrably not true.

Morals are sets of rules form for ourselves to help us live amongst other people. Everybody has a different set. However, as a society, we also have a set that we've agreed on, more or less, which mostly represents individual morality. These are codified as laws.

We get our morals from society, culture, family, friends, our own experiences, and even instincts. As society evolves, so do our morals. What was considered right and wrong hundreds of years ago has changed in more recent days, and will change again in the future. For example, it has only been in the last 100 or so years in which women are respected as equals and allowed to vote.

Answer 7

It is not so much as whether you can have morals without Christianity, it is whether they are the right morals. For example, our present secular humanist establishment uses situational ethics to decide right and wrong in the moral sense. But by its very nature this concept of right and wrong is not fixed. This means it is subject to the whims of society, or whoever holds the reins of power in the society. That exposes us all to the danger posed by the removal of, what Christians would regard as God-given rights. These rights are an excellent protection and safeguard for the individual.
Where morals values are not regarded as absolute, what is right today may be wrong tomorrow and vice versa. In the Aztec society (for example) human sacrifice was not only acceptable, it was seen as having a virtue. In more recent times we have seen the situational ethics practised by the Nazi regime which took the Darwinian notion of survival of the fittest to its natural conclusion with the Nazi, eugenics program. Our Secular Humanist society has already begun re-instating some of these discredited ideas, with the eradication by abortion, by embryo selection, proposed infanticide and euthanasia of those considered less fit, old or infirm. Communist regimes also had their own ideas of situational ethics where, whatever the Party line was at particular time, became the only moral right from which any deviation was a crime to be severely punished. We are currently moving towards a similar situation, except that in this so-called democracy, the moral right is claimed to be a consensus opinion. However, in practice, the consensus is rarely decided by a genuine consultation of the people, it is rather a consensus of politicos or other vested interests that have the power by virtue of their privelige or wealth. So the answer is that we need the surety and protection of God-given rights, based on an unchangeable morality, of which the Christian ethic, based on love of God, and a pure, unselfish love of one's neighbour, has proved to be the ultimate pinnacle of moral goodness.

EDIT ..The Truth .........."What is wrong with this example? Well, Germany was a Christian country and Hitler was raised a Roman Catholic. Doesn't this suggest that the religious morals are secondary to those of society?"

Germany under Hitler was not a Christian country, The ruling Nazi Party actually had pagan beliefs, their pagan beliefs were closely allied to their Darwinian beliefs and philosophy from which arose their racial theories that some races were more highly evolved than others. This led them to the fallacious conclusion that the Aryan race was the most highly evolved of all, and therefore was the master race, destined to rule and, in the spirit of the survival of the fittest, entitled to eliminate all races considered by them to be inferior. Hitler had long before abandoned the Catholic faith of his childhood and enthusiastically embraced the evolutionary theories of Darwin and the German evolutionist Ernst Haeckel. which provided him with a supposed 'scientific' justification for his racial policies against those races which he had grown to despise such as the Jews, Gipsies and Slavs.

Answer 8

Morals are the sense of right and wrong for each individual based on their past experiences. Does society decided morality or do the individuals decide for society? No one group holds domain over morality. Each human has their own sense of right and wrong, it is just that we all live on Earth and share these views that morality exists. A lot of religions try to control morality but I feel that a lot of people nowadays are willing to make their own decisions of what is morally correct and then choose their faith based off these beliefs.

Blessed Be )O(

Answer 9

Most groups and individuals have a moral code of some kind.
The problem with relying on conscience is that we are very good at stifling it when convenient
If Christians are separated from others by their morals then those morals are not Christian. 0ne of the tenets of Christian morality is to love one's neighbour...and, even, one's enemy.

Most of the laws in the UK have their basis in the Judao?Christian ethic.

Wilberforce was inspired by the Bible (not conscience) to work for the abolition of slavery. 0ne could go on.

Answer 10

Knowing what is and is not the moral thing to do is perceived through our conscience. The Nazis raised many children to adulthood to be cold-blooded killers most of them never did what they were expected to do, their conscience struggled against their training. That said some of them did do what was asked of them, their conscience didn't stop them. As we can see in this extreme case conscience can work for good or bad depending on the individual and is why we need a higher moral authority to direct us, one that is beyond reproach and cannot be argued with, God.

Answer 11

Christianity has only been around for about 2000 years. What the hell were people doing before that? That is a very easy question to answer. Religions are very arrogant because they claim they know the real "one and only god" and have a personal relationship with him/her/it. If we took our morals from Christianity before the new testiment then we'd be in a ton of trouble. If we took it after the new testiment then what the hell were the people in the old testiment times doing?!?!? Why does religion and religious morals always change with new advances in science and for the most part religion, when you look at it as a whole has only ever goten more liberal.