Christians: Why is belief in God and/or the Bible necessary for one to have morals and ethics?

Question

I often hear xtians say that the bad and evil are cause by lack of God in peoples lives and question how those who don't believe in God can have morals and ethics (this is asked at least once a day on YA!)...so I'd like to turn it around and find out exactly why someone would think belief in a God is a necessary component for living good, moral, ethical, decent, lawful lives????

Sorry if this is asked a million times, it didn't show up in search, but I only see it asked rhetorically in answers the the xtian questions, not as an answerable question.

Mahal: I don't (have to) question others morals...in this question alone there are a good half dozen xtians who would be killing, raping, and dog f--king if not for the fear/love of "God"...so their morals are in question implicitly.

Heaven's Messenger: Thank you for giving me a good reason (other than plain laziness) for using xtian instead of christian...I will use the abbreviated version always from now on.

Answer 1

Because if you base your morality off society, you basically grant whatever you want as moral and whatever you want as immoral. Thus if enough people want, you can make murder and slavery perfectly legal. The Holy Spirit, however, never leads anyone to evil impulses and always towards righteousness. The Holy Spirit is an incorruptible spirit and I kind of agree with Jonathan Edwards - the atheist gets his morality from the whispers of the Holy Spirit.

Answer 2

First of all, what is an xtian? And God gave us all not just Christians the Bible to read and learn mostly about Him and how to live a prosperous life through knowing Him. I often hear people say that we didn't come with an instruction book on how to live but we did, it is called The Holy Bible.
The word Bible means Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.
God inspired man to write it and pass it on and it has every answer to any question you can come up with about life and how to live it. Morals and ethics are something that we know in our hearts, it's called choosing right from wrong and The Holy Spirit convicts us when we know in our heart and mind that we have done something against God and ourselves.

Answer 3

Why would you care? If you don't believe in God and when you die that's the end and there is no heaven or hell then who cares if you have any morals or ethics what does it matter.I mean when you gone you are gone. But if you die and there is a God,isn't "IF" a big word and the Bible was right and you stand before God and tell him you just weren't sure and you didn't really know and you did the best you could,and if you are anything like the rest of us that won't be very good, I don't think you will like His answer!!! But I'm not the Judge just the messenger, listen God loves you Jesus died for you and He wants to save you so bad that's why you are here, isn't He a great God He told me to tell you that He loves you so Hey you! God loves you and if you will love Him back and recieve His Son into your heart He will save you and then He can answer your question Himself pretty cool stuff if you ask me! 8-) Hope to see you there. Read Romans 10:8-13 OK Please, Thanks

Answer 4

It's not. There are plenty of really great people out there that are morally decent and have a beautiful heart that don't believe in God. And of course there are the ever popular hypocritical christians who are the "do as I say, not as I do" and can't find the love God has told them to show for EVERYONE, especially sinners (which everyone including christians are). I am a christian by the way and I slip just like everyone else. I have never told anyone they were stupid for not believing, only told them why I believed. Everyone knows right and wrong, everyone makes a conciouse(?) decision whether or not they are going to be good or bad, even when they are too young to know about God. A christian could totally ignore God's commandments and go kill someone oif they wanted. Look at how many people were doing "the work of GOD" and ended up being a serial killer. We are all human and remember, NO christian is to ever judge another person, especially a non-christian. We are to never ridicule them or accuse them of anything. We are supposed to help them and be kind and loving for them. Remind them of that next time they start telling you you're evil. Christians have the chance to listen to guidance, but can ignore it if they give into temptation.

Answer 5

Most of today's law if carefully analyzed have a precedent in the bible, because the first ever commandments to be followed for Christian living where laid down by god himself. so i would say it not because of lake of belief in god but rather taking God for granted and not fearing Him. Also the present world is so full of temptations and trials and like our Forefather Adam And Eve we are so inquisitive to know what happens if we dint do thing right rather than to wait patiently and at times even suffer for being right.
We always want the easy way out. and taht leads us to falling into sin.
It is not necessary that only one who believes in God or the Bible Should be morally and Ethically right. because God the Creator in his Wisdom Created all of us with an indwelling reason Gifted mind to chose between right and wrong so even a person who is an atheist in his belief can still live his life morally and ethically correct because he is created to reason and do what is right or wrong.

Answer 6

No, belief in God is not necessary for one to have morals and ethics. But God gave society morals and ethics to live by so an moral atheist would be a product of the teaching of that society.
Also, tho every religious system admonishes people to live moral lives, a lot of people find that hard to due--to control their lust, alcoholism, drug addiction, self-centerness, etc. etc. Xinaty offers Power inherent in the religion to overcome such things.
I use Xian because it is shorter and I don't think Christ minds. One shouldn't impose rules that are not specified in the Bible.

Answer 7

First off, as a christian we shouldn't even respond to any question that uses xtians, we take Christ out of nothing. But this time I will say that since even the laws of the land are based on the Laws of God, and you have no respect for or belief in God, then most of us seriously question what you get your ethics and morals from.

Answer 8

Conforming to good standards of behavior, and
character ,can be the cause and affect of several distinct reasons , or beliefs.

Society itself often dictates what morals and ethics are standard.
That itself can cause people to obey simply because they want to abide in the law.

Believing in a higher being can also be a component.

The family life and how the person was raised can have much to do with a persons' ethics.

Yet, I tend to think that most people are born with an inner sense of right from wrong :That outside influences simply add to or distract from what we was all ready given upon birth

Answer 9

Hi,

My personal feeling is that everyone on the face of earth should have belief in god or some eternal power. The reason being without it we are all like children's without parents to stop them from doing wrong. Human being by nature is jealous and self centered and more often than not fail to distinguish the right from wrong when they are in quest of some material happiness. The fear of someone watching over them has to be there so that each and everyone before doing anything knows that any wrong done would be noticed and punished the same way a child would refrain from doing something wrong from the fear that his parents would take him to task.

regs

Answer 10

I assure you I have empathy, morals, and ethics. I am not religious. Belief is not a necessary component. Indeed, I think it is an obstacle to morality. Why? Well, I've read the Bible, and I get it. People have evolved, but devolution is at play here. I wish humanity godspeed in arriving at a logical conclusion. There is so much more to existence than the paltry lack of imagination that is proffered in religious texts. Can we move on please?