Does having a moral code of values make you religious, and vice versa?

Question

Is it possible to have a set of moral values but not be religious? For example, much of the time I don't feel religious (God, heaven and Hell are too hard to believe in) but I still feel like I have a set of moral values. I almost never usually cheat or steal, and I would only kill someone in war or extreme circumstances. And if I do cheat or steal I always feel bad about it (can't yet imagine what it would feel like to kill someone, I imagine not very nice). Does this make me religious?

PS: Please don't post answers telling me to go to church or start praying or anything like that. I'm only interested in your opinion regarding the relations between moral values and religion.

Answer 1

No, you are simply a decent human being.

I like what Mahen said. Those of us who have an internal moral code and sense of right and wrong don't need an outside source to make us behave.

Much better to be moral and not religious, than religious with no morals.

Answer 2

We feel good or feel bad because we've been trained since infancy. We get praise for acceptable behavior and punished for unacceptable behavior. We love praise and hate punishment so, in general, we behave. When we get to be adults, our training is felt through feelings. We feel bad if we cheat or steal, as you have said.

So are feelings in and of themselves a solid foundation for morality? I think not. There is no moral imperative to obey a feeling. Feelings are rather pliable, we can hone them and become more sympathetic, for example, or dull them. If we just turn our eyes away from the beggar a few times, we'll soon not see the beggar at all.

Unless there is a moral authority behind the feelings, i.e. God, we'll eventually come to resent being manipulated by society through our feelings.

Answer 3

No and Yes.

It is perfectly possible (though not likely and rather unusual) to have a code of moral values without religion. For example the American Bar Assocition has cannons of legal ethics, that dictate how lawyers are supposed to behave... they had their origins in religious concepts, but they had all religious references carefully scrubbed out decades ago... not politically correct you know.

Now, consider if you will the question of "Do lawyers have a reputation for ethical behavior?"

Now that everyone has stopped laughing and snickering at the thought of an ethical lawyer, that shows you how difficult and rare it is to have a good ethical code without a religious basis. God provides an outside point of reference that is vital to a working moral code. Without God there is no absolute right or wrong... everything becomes "morally relative" and "depends on the circumstances" which is a fancy way of saying "you can do whatever you want as long as you can come up with a good line of bull that sounds like it justifys it... or if that fails yell and pound on the table till nobody is brave enough to take you on."

If you don't believe me look at this. "A disbarred lawyer convicted of aiding terrorists will be teaching at an upcoming law school ethics conference.

Lynne Stewart, who was found guilty of conspiring with terrorist Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, will be speaking October 16 at Hofstra Law School’s “Legal Ethics: Lawyering on the Edge,” in Hempstead, New York.

The speaking engagement comes only a year after Stewart was sentenced to twenty-eight months in prison on charges of conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists."


http://michellemalkin.com/2007/09/25/convicted-disbarred-disgraced-jihad-lawyer-lynne-stewart-to-teach-ethics-class/

So you can see that once you pull God or religion out of an ethical system it gets REAL hard to keep it from colapsing into anarchy. Not saying it can't EVER bee done... but the odds are against it.

Contrawise, if you become a religious person, with a sincere belief in God, at least in the Judeo-Christain Tradtion, or the Buddhist tradition, or perahps the Taoists...then you will, by following your religion, become an ethcial person.

This doesn't work for every religion... Lets face it, it wasn't radical Methodist Terrorists that flew the planes into the World Trade Center, and the fundamentalist Christians are sending money to Israel to help the Israelis, not rockets and bombs to kill them.

That being said, as a general rule of thumb, people, left to themselves, are pretty rotten. (Hobbes said "Life in the state of nature is nasty, brutish and short"). Without religion to check their behavior, it is a VERY rare individual that will still do the right thing when he or she wants to do the wrong one.

Oh.. they will SAY they do the right thing... and they will say "well I don't kill people" but lets face it... killing people gets you tossed into jail. Not breaking the law doesn't make you moral, it just means you are afraid of the cops and jail.

Being moral, really moral, means doing the right thing, even when you don't have to, even in the little things, and even when you can get away with it and nobody will ever know, even when it is going to cost you.

Under circumstances like that EVERYONE's morality is tested, believer and non-believer... but being a believer makes it easier to stay moral.

Answer 4

This is a really tough question for me as I am spiritual, but not religious. Sounds stupid, and I do know it, but the truth is that organized religion makes me furious! Yes, you can be very moral without being religious and I applaud you for your values.

Answer 5

Morals have nothing to do with religion and everything to do with empathy. If a person can realize that everyone can feel pain, just like them, then they can have morals.

Answer 6

Just like the laws of the country - some people need religion (the punishment and the reward) - to live 'ethical'/moral life thinking that no one is watching. - So we say 'god is watching you'.

Answer 7

NO!! Morals having nothing at all to do with being religious.

Answer 8

No it does not. We are taught from the time we are born what is right and wrong. I know that murder is wrong. There is no need for me to claim that "GOD" instilled that in me...my mommy and daddy did and down the line to someone who got sick of seeing people killed so they taught others it was wrong. The end.

Answer 9

I'm not religious, but I still have morals. Thats what makes me normal. (If one could consider me normal)

Answer 10

"Religion without the mystical is merely a system of ethics" D.T. Suzuki