Comrades
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Morality
Morality is innate. Religion is not necessary for people to live a moral and ethical life. Belief in the existence of some alleged God is not necessary for people to live a moral and ethical life. Following are points that deny all credibility to the claims that man would have no sense of morality without religion, and that morality comes from some God.
A. Both sympathy and empathy are innate: Social animals such as elephants, dolphins and chimpanzees have been known to show compassion or forgo activity that may cause another to suffer. No one need write it down or teach the animal to be altruistic and treat others with kindness, it just does. This is usually witnessed in the more intelligent animal species, those—like humans—that are most aware of their surroundings and the effects of their actions. Furthermore, social animals in the wild get along and advance just fine. They are not nearly as intelligent as we are, so they don’t build roads, bridges, vehicles for transportation (which only destroy our planet), or make scientific discoveries, but they get along just fine in their social groups, without religion. Lastly, from living in social groups, humans (and other social species) learn, through trial and error if necessary, that it is not only in their individual best interest to work as a cohesive, progressive group (most of the time), but also that it is detrimental to the survival of the group. This means not only working together to hunt for food or fend off threats, but also accepting and respecting (consciously or instinctively) that it is not beneficial to arbitrarily steal and kill at will.
Young children, who do not have a clear and working understanding of religion, its concepts and philosophies, or the idea of a God, will naturally attempt to console an adult who appears to be saddened or troubled. This is because they are naturally empathetic, sympathetic, moral. At times, it may be necessary to explain morality, or even enforce it in children, but it does not need to be taught to them. You do not need to feed them fables, false promises, or scare them with threats of eternal pain. Simply expound upon the benefits (personal and social) of doing what they do naturally.
B. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that is considered to be moral, altruistic, or charitable, that a person of religion has done, that could not have been done by a secularist, or even an outright atheist. I dare you to think of even one beneficent thing a theist has or could do, that hasn’t or couldn’t be done by an atheist. You can’t. That’s because religion is not necessary for one to be moral and ethical.
C. It is absurd to believe or even suggest that the Hebrews, before reaching Mt. Sinai, and (allegedly) receiving ‘moral’ law from their God, felt that murder, rape, pillage and theft were perfectly fine. No, I will not be so credulous, gullible and foolish as to believe such a thing. The Hebrews would have known that murder and rape are acts of amorality and immorality without visiting a mountain and (allegedly) receiving ‘moral’ laws from some God. Furthermore, they would have known that to forgo such acts as murder, rape and theft is necessary for the prosperity and progress of the individual, the family, and the group in whole as well. They did not need to (allegedly) meet some God at a mountain and be taught about ‘their’ religion and ‘moral’ law. Lastly, they never would have made it as far as the mountain if they didn’t already know these things before they were (supposedly) introduced to some alleged God.
D. Who is more moral: (1) He who is charitable and deals fairly with his fellow man because he is naturally considerate, compassionate and loves peace, justice and righteousness? Or, (2) he who lives a moral life to proselytize and promote his religion, or because it takes for his religion to mandate (certain degrees of) morality for him to be moved to altruistic action? One, the secularist (possibly an atheist), is naturally moral. The other (possibly a Christian, Muslim or Jew), according to where he gives credit, is moral merely because of some man-made religion. So one must pose the question, would the religious man still be moral without his adherence to religion? If you answer yes, then why continue to adhere to the religion on the basis of morality? If you answer no, then how do you explain the highly moral and ethical lives lived by hundreds of millions of atheists?
E. When left alone, bad people will do bad and good people will do good. To get good people to do bad, it takes religion (study history!), worship (or at least strong adoration), and stubborn biasness.
Religion has absolutely nothing to do with me helping an elderly lady up the subway stairs with her bags, or a young lady down those stairs with a stroller. Belief in the existence of some alleged God was not necessary for me to rush to help an elderly lady off the ground after she had fallen near a curb, or to return a man’s wallet to him, or feed any unfortunate man who has ever asked of me a meal. Religion has not been necessary for me to show the utmost respect to any and every woman I have ever encountered, even when some of those women have held only the lowest dignity for themselves. Believing in the existence of some alleged God is not what causes tears to fall free from my eyes when I see or hear of my brothers and sisters around the world suffering in penury, or being exploited and/or neglected by the selfish and callous amongst us. Religion is not what makes me considerate of others, or feel sorrow for a mother who has lost her child. Religion has nothing to do with me showing and feeling only love for those who openly hate, despise or loathe me merely because I am an atheist.
I have a genuine love for my brothers and sisters around the world. I greet others with this love because I believe that together we can make this planet a more pleasant place to live. I greet others with this love because I simply enjoy seeing a sincere (not sinister) smile on the face of others. And my hope is that those I greet will in turn bring a brighter day to the people they encounter. Then, ultimately, those of us who have an immense passion for peace and hatred of poverty can work to compel the avaricious amongst us to be more compassionate and less hypocritical, cynical, manipulative, xenophobic, deceitful and inconsiderate.
“I would much rather build and finance schools than build and finance churches.”
-Clarence Williams
“An atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An Atheist believes that deed must be done instead of a prayer said. An Atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty vanished, war eliminated.” -Madalyn Murray O'Hair
“A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.” -Albert Einstein
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