( Like some people say? )
What do you think?
2007-09-04 16:39:13 · 12 answers · asked by ✡ 5 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Not at all. Morality originates in our innate human understanding of how best to coexist in a civil society. It's taken 1000s of years for us to arrive at the morals that work and reject the ones that don't. We can know good from evil and right from wrong by our inborn and culturally cultivate moral sense.
The sins mentioned in the Ten Commandments usually fail to produce a livable society that can survive generations. So these commandments are based on our sense of morality and not on the edicts of God.
You can find examples in any religion based on a deity of laws of conduct that have analogs in other cultures.
It is as if we are the Tin Man looking for our "heart", and we find all along that we never needed the Wizard of Oz to give it to us, we always had it in us. So goes for morality.
Peace.
2007-09-04 16:49:44 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No human based moral system has any authority behind it. It's the "says who?" problem. Morality is not just good deeds, but it is also the right motive behind the good deeds.
The moral person does not act out of fear; we call that cowardice. The moral person does not act in order to get a reward; we call that being a suck up. Nor ought we to act in order to get some sort of good feeling because actions in order to get good feelings is a moral weakness.
In order to be moral, doing the right thing must be a moral obligation we owe and not just a good feeling we seek. Only God can place such an obligation upon us.
2007-09-06 05:26:13 · answer #2 · answered by Matthew T 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, there's no god, so no.
Do religions have morals? We often hear that you can't have a well-grounded morality without religion, but it's all-too-clear that religion is not a source of morality as much as it's an after-the-fact rationalization for one's moral choices.
Evidence? If religion was a source of morality, we'd expect people within a religion to share moral decisions. They don't: there's at least as much disagreement within a religion over moral issues as there is between religions.
2007-09-04 23:43:35 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
God is the source of what we consider morals, yeah. If, and I'm being 100% serious here, I found out beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is no God, I would be a different person. I'd be having a lot of "fun," as some would say. But I don't, because God wants me to love myself and my neighbor. I still want to have "fun," but I restrain myself because I believe God wants me to. If no God, then no consequences that I'd care about.
2007-09-04 23:51:01 · answer #4 · answered by hanknowaff 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If people need to believe in God to have morals, then there must be something wrong with our society. I think morals are one of the ways in which humans adapt to social living. In short, society runs a lot more smoothly with a code of behavior and people who actually give a crap about one another. I don't need to fear divine punishment or suck up to God to see the necessity of morals.
2007-09-04 23:45:51 · answer #5 · answered by Subconsciousless 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Who do you think wrote the laws of righteousness? Just because some people say that God does not exist, the laws of morality began with God, and they will end with God.
2007-09-04 23:44:48 · answer #6 · answered by AdoreHim 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Let's see, the people of Egypt exercised their given right to free will, and god killed their first born cute children. Adam and Eve, before they knew of good and evil, were punished for learning. So before they knew what wrong was, they were punished for learning what is right and wrong. So if we learn our morals from god, then we'd be pretty evil people.
2007-09-04 23:42:22 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Not really, no...
From an answer I gave a while back...
Assume that God does what is good. Is it good because God does it, or does God do it because it is good?
If the first, then anything at all could be deemed "good" simply because God does it.
If the latter - if God does things that are intrisically good - then goodness does not depend on God.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Aokjz9uZQtisTxnChPAyju3ty6IX?qid=20070803215146AA29nGo&show=7#profile-info-6064bd72a9d33a8f2e618cc79b0f9629aa
2007-09-04 23:45:53 · answer #8 · answered by Snark 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Of course He does. He is the author of all good morals.
2007-09-04 23:45:51 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
"The most heinous and the most cruel crimes of which history has record have been committed under the cover of religion or equally noble motives." - Mohandas Gandhi
2007-09-04 23:45:28 · answer #10 · answered by Lethal Dose Of American Hatred 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋