Do You Believe People Can Still Be Moral Without Religion?

Categories

Do You Believe People Can Still Be Moral Without Religion?

Posted on May 17, 2024 by Father Joe

Krystal Smith poses this question at STAPLER CONFESSIONS and states: “Religion provides guidance for many people. It set laws and rules for ancient societies to abide by. And many religious people feel these laws are necessary to dictate what is right and wrong for humankind. Many atheists feel that morality is innate and modern society’s laws are sufficient to govern mankind.”

The Church had hoped that a healthy universal respect for natural law would bring consensus and cooperation in forming a better and moral society. However, the current clash in values is readily interpreted by believers as ample evidence that apart from God, men and women do not know how to be good. We would likely agree with the more reasonable atheists that there should be an innate sense of right and wrong, at least for most people. But we should not forget that human nature while good is also fallen.

Morality includes not only prohibitive acts but also altruism for the good of others and the poor. Ayn Rand’s thinking is particularly popular among conservative politicians on the right. She would also appeal to atheists. Her philosophy of selfishness shuns expressions of charity. It has been noted by certain atheists themselves that the charity and social justice efforts are disproportionately linked to churches and religious people. Both the civil rights efforts for racial integration and the marches for the lives of the unborn are heavily populated by believers. The faithful and Christian organizations are often the first on the ground to support the poor and disadvantaged. Where would they be if people of faith were to disappear?

Many a believer has prayed that he might be spared from the terrible compassion of non-believers with benign intentions but with a lack of guidance about right or wrong. A mother panics about an unplanned pregnancy and destroys her unborn baby. A family frets about the pain that an elderly grandmother suffers and opts for euthanization to end her misery. The Christian places ultimate trust in God. By contrast, the atheist must place his trust in mankind alone, and in practice this means politicians and the state. While believers speak of inalienable and God-given rights, what the state gives, the state can take away. Right and wrong becomes a capricious exercise of pandering to power. The wealthy and powerful will always win in this scenario. The poor and the weak will be victimized and manipulated. It is in recognizing God that we safeguard human dignity and rights. Nothing else satisfies as well.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Atheism, christianity, Faith, Philosophy, Religion |

One Response

Jim, on May 21, 2024 at 3:21 am said:

“Do You Believe People Can Still Be Moral Without Religion ?”

Definitely. It makes little difference whether an ethic is said to be Divinely revealed, or not. Religions that claim a Divine sanction or origin for their morals, are as bloody-handed as any avowedly secular tyranny. Whether a Jew is burned by the Inquisition, or gassed by Nazism, makes no difference: he is dead either way.

It takes religion to bring out the very worst in people; no warfare is more repulsive, than war commanded in the Name of the God Who is said to be Agapē-Love. The USSR, for all its crimes, never stooped as low as that. Religionlessness aims less high, so it is protected from falling as low as Christianity is capable of doing. There are no humanist clergy in prison for molesting minors – there are many Christian clergy in prison for that. Lack of religion protects the religionless from doing a great deal of evil.

FATHER JOE:

You are proof that my argument is correct. Given that today many atheists reject the natural law, there is really nothing credible to guide their ethical assessments. While wayward or lapsed Christians often act as if there be no God and commit all sorts of atrocities, this receives no approbation from religion but is stamped with the stigma of sin. The inquisition was an instance where the state used religion for its own purposes. The crusades were to reopen the Holy Land to Christian pilgrims. Atrocities committed by Naziism were not the fault of true believers but by the pagan humanism of Hitler that scapegoated the Jews who were both a people and a religion. Christians are not perfect. They are sometimes passive to evil or compromise with the diabolical, as with the murder of children through abortion.

You are naïve in your assessment. I would concur that it is not truly the hand of God we witness in the terrorism of militant Islamic extremists. But it saddens me that you would be an apologist for the atrocities under the atheistic socialism of Stalin. He killed some 20 million of his own people and many others suffered the gulag. Hitler had around 6 million Jews murdered. Adding other noncombatants, like the gypsies and Slavs, that number can be doubled. Mao in Red China brought about 2.5 million deaths in the revolution and campaigns. Another 45 million died in the Great Leap Famine. Atheism has been tried and it was devastating to human rights. Today the United States is being tested by a new atheism that gives rights to a privileged few while seeking to strip them from others, especially the most vulnerable without a voice.

The faith would condemn perverse acts where either children or women are reduced to sexual commodities. While divine judgment may be the harshest upon Christians and clergy guilty of abuse, it will also fall upon clergy, teachers, counselors, etc. While it may not make the news headlines, there are plenty of humanist molesters in jail as well for exploiting their positions of authority over others. Without religion, there would not be as many critiques against such wrongs. You are very much deceived.