Why do religious people insist that law and morals comes from God?

Question

I don't understand why some of the Christians on here are adamant that moral fiber results from God. The most interesting aspect of this is the fact the morals in real terms have evolved and changed as mankind has progess (eg: legal age of consent laws are one example of where things have changed compared to 1000-2000 years ago).
In essence isn't it fairly simple to ponder that per evolution, human beings have conjured moral fiber on their own as a means for surviving? Ie. As the smartest creatures on earth humans have realised that by following rules we enable each other to live better?

For any Christian person out there who knows, I would like to extend this question to encompass things such as the Crusades (no different to the current Muslim Jihad that is scorn by many Christians). The torturous acts of the Catholics during the middle ages.... Burning at the stake for witches etc. Reality has it that movement away from bogus teachings of the church has actually resulted in better morality. Unlike what some people have highlighted. Perhaps this is why the church continues to modify it's stance on different issues as time progresses? The church is not the same as it was 1500 years ago and will not be the same in another 1500 years. Why? If god made the morals, then things should never change!?

Answer 1

You have an interesting hypothesis. Another is that all societies adopt simular rules to survive. Almost all societies have rules close to the Ten Commandments, but differ on what they consider theft, murder, adultery, etc. Could you imagine a society that didn't outlaw these practices?
Most people that espouse the "all morals come from God" arguement also follow a black vs white, us vs them philosophy. They believe (and teach their kids) that anything other than their philosophy must be evil (think George Bush here).

Answer 2

Our morals today are on the downslide...we were a more moral country years ago. So, I'm not sure where you get the idea that we have more moral fiber. Laws about the age of consent do not show morals.

If anything, you can directly relate our moral decline to the larger numbers of people not believing in God, or believing that God is someone who only wants us to be happy.

Answer 3

Many people just want to be told what to believe. It is too hard to think for themselves and question the status quo. It is far easier to accept that some things are absolutely true. This is not a symptom of just religious people. Nearly everyone has a blind spot where they have accepted some idea as being the absolute truth when other people do not see it in that light.

Answer 4

They don't understand that morals come from common sense and the ability to empathize with your fellow human beings. They were raised being told that morals come from God and are taught by the church. It never occurs to them to realize that they can think for themselves about these things. (I'm not saying that to insult, it's just that sometimes you need to sort of pound home the question of "Would YOU be a rapist/murderer/etc. if you didn't have the Bible telling you not to do that?" and then it dawns on them that, no, they still probably wouldn't.) It takes a while for them to realize that they would probably still make fairly rational decisions ALL ON THEIR OWN. They don't give themselves enough credit.

Answer 5

My beliefs must rest solidly on the teachings of the Holy Bible. Jesus said, " word is truth" (John 17:17).

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 2 Timothy 3:16

Answer 6

Hey! Great question!

There are universal morals and there are culturally-conditioned morals.

Universal morals don't change over time, and are often reflected consistently across religions and cultures. From a Judeo-Christian point of view, they come from both the explicit teachings of the bible, e.g. Torah, 10 commandments, etc., and from an understanding that the way creation works on a grand scale reflects God's will--the way He intended the world to be.
That means that by studying the way that the world works, we can learn something about God's intention. (This is sometimes called Natural Law.)

Teaching concerning things like infant stem cell research, gay marriage, etc. which are modern issues, are based on universal principles(God's will as it is manifested in creation.)

Example: Therefore, an embryo, just because it was conceived, reflects God's will that it exist. The soul is the principle of life and spirit. Since the embroyo exists as living tissue, it has a Soul. Since it has a body and soul, it's therefore a human being. It has it's own dignity because God intends that it should exist, and in His "image and likeness". The moral commandment of "thou shalt not kill" applies in this case.

Example: God's will is reflected in the structure of nature in sofaras He created man and woman as He did to be companions to each other in such a way as to be able to create children naturally as a family. This has implications for same sex marriage and the meaning of marriage, especially if marriage is thought to be a community of spirit, a mini-church, in harmony with God's intention and for the purpose of creating and raising children.

Other manifestations of "morals" do vary over time and culture such as the age of consent. The age itself is not a moral, but what's legislated to meet the needs of families and children at a given time and place.

So, the age of consent exists as it is in our culture, because children have often been used and exploited for work, sex, etc. and not treated with the dignity that they have as living human beings.

The universal principle at play is the dignity of the human being and the right of the human being to those conditions that will allow it to grow into a full and healthy person as God intended.

So the age of consent varies according to time and culture, but ultimately it's to protect the universal value of human dignity and rights.

Ultimately, religious morals are statements of 1. how to live in harmony with God's will in creation, 2. how to stop the conditions of life that lead to undue suffering by emphasizing human dignity of all beings, and 3. how to transcend the clinging of our small egos that cause us to exacerbate our personal suffering.

Morals are often not easy to live, because they are often painful in that they conflict with our own self-interests. No one wants to suffer or to be told that we can't marry.

We should be compassionate about each others suffering. On the other hand, morals challenge our self-centeredness, egotism, and open us to spiritual realities.

Some people in today's secular post-modern culture question whether such morals are applicable to themselves, or even that God exists as the point of reference for any universal morals at all.

Answer 7

I think that some of them believe that their God is the basis of morals. They can not see how morals could exist without their God as he is the sole contributor to morals.

Answer 8

Because everything comes from God,incuding us and our moral predisposition. We evidence God. In addition we say it rests on God to have any ultimate absolute meaning as opposed to a temporary, conventional, arbitrary, meaningless one.

Answer 9

Yeah. How 'bout that. I don't know anybody who has law or morals til threatened by them.

Answer 10

God made the world and all the rules!