What makes you think we need religion to lead good lives?

Question

are you telling me that all religious people are good?

whats wrong with been an agnostic and cultivating love towards others?

Ex muslim/free thinker/humanist

sonfa who told you that morals and ethics we practice today comes from gods?

Answer 1

Religion like everything else in creation has a natural cycle. It is born, grows and matures, gives it's best fruits and then gets old and "dies".
The advancement brought to world civilization by your "ex-religion" in medicine, art, philosophy, literature, mathematics, astronomy, communications, etc.. is undeniable and can be read in all historical books.
What makes people reject religion is the dead aspect they have reached today. Religion is today synonymous with fanaticism, bigotry, prejudices, hatred, animosity, blind beliefs, etc.. all contrary to the original teachings of that religion.
Old religions of the past are no longer able to produce the transformation needed in man; we are in desperate need of a new * spring time * again.
.

Answer 2

You don't. I know many Atheists who are more "Christ-like" than some of the "Christians" I know. Religious people are like the general population. There are good and bad people in every group.

All religions of the world give us the same basic rules - love thy neighbor, do unto others, etc. Many people follow those rules and some do not. Religion is not a prerequesite to being a good person.

If one cultivates love and compassion, one is a good person. If one sows seeds of discourse, bitterness, and hatred (as I have seen done by many self professed Christians in this forum), one is a bad person.

I don't blame religion for the evil that happens in the world (I am a Christian). The fault lies with people who pervert their religion to promote their non-religious agenda.

There is nothing wrong with been an agnostic and cultivating love towards others. It is the 2nd part, not the first, that shows the quality of your character.

Answer 3

I don't think anyone needs religion to live a good life. There are many people who don't go to church who live fine upstanding moral lives. But there are two things to consider, three things to think about.

1. Where did the standard of morality come from, God or men?

2. If a person who lives a good life breaks the law just one time will the judge who has sworn to uphold the law let them off the hook or will he have to impose upon them whatever penalty the law requires?

3. The Bible teaches that it is appointed once for a person to die and then they will face God's judgment. Since we have all told lies (false witness) and probably taken something that didn't belong to us at least once (stealing/thievery) how can we expect to stand before the righteous judge and be found innocent apart from faith in the payment that Jesus made for us when He laid down his life on a cross on our behalf?

"And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Hebrews 10:11-14

Answer 4

I dun think we need a religion to lead a good live. There are a lot of free thinker having a good life now.

Religion is good when u are helpless and need something to gave advices on uncertainties. No one will ever be able to prove me wrong or right thou.

So all people on earth pray to different gods and these gave each of us a way to deal with uncertainties in life.

Lastly , personally i think there is no absolute good or bad in everything we do.

Answer 5

What we need is the TRUE religion of God.

You can see by the state of the world what false religion and trying to rule ourselves has gotten us. Man has tried for the last 6,000 years with every form of government to rule himself and failed miserably.

False religions attempts to hold control over people and governments would be laughable if it had not caused the deaths of so many people.

We very much need TRUE religion the Bible points to as a solution to the earth's big problems.

Answer 6

I have nothing what so ever against athiests or agnostics, but religion does help, because like im a catholic and if atheists and agnostiscs knew that whatever you do to someone else you are doing it to Jesus, then more people would be happier cause they'd treat each other with love and respect.

Answer 7

If God doesn't exists, where do we get the absolute benchmarks of right and wrong with which to judge our actions by? And if there is no absolute benchmark, that means there's no such thing as absolute right and absolute wrong at all. Which means words like 'good' and 'bad' have no meaning at all. Which means we can do whatever we want. In order to be 'good' we need the source of that goodness - God.

Edit - for example... Muslims are taught it's good to kill non-Muslims by flying planes into the side of buildings. Christians don't think so. So who is right? By which standard do you measure 'good'? Another example... some people think abortion is right. Some people think abortion is wrong. What one person think is good, another thinks is bad. The nazis thought it was good to exterminate Jews. Others didn't think so. To them, they were doing a good thing. To us, they were doing a bad thing. Unless you have a standard - unless a truth has something to be true about - these words have no meaning. By trying to talk about goodness in the absence of God, you're cutting off the tree branch on which you're sitting. It's like saying, I believe in clouds but I don't believe in the water vapour that forms them.

Answer 8

Apicole might sound a bit extreme!
Apicole has it right though.
If you think of religions as trees of knowledge then there are times when they need gentle trimming.
Times that they need serious pruning,
and other times that they need to be totally uprooted and other new orchards planted.
Guess what, after thousands of years,
as fond as the memories are,
the old orchards are no longer producing fruit.
It is past time for the change.

Answer 9

If we need religion to be good then we haven't evolved much at all. I know very religious people who do and say terrible things to support their beliefs and I know non believers who are kind, generous and gentle. Religion has nothing to do with Who we are and why. We have all created Who we are - good or bad and live our lives within that creation. We can also change what we have created if we choose to.

Answer 10

You don't need religion to lead a good life. If you desire to be agnostic, but loving towards others, then that is your choice.