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The connection between Religion and Morality
Impacts of religion on moral values
The connection between Religion and Morality
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That there is a difference between religion and morality is uncontroversial. How can atheism be interpreted as a moral alternative? Although religion and morality reflect different values, they are deeply tangled for most individuals. In many cases, a person’s moral principles are grounded in religious commitments. In other cases, people find the source of morality outside of religion, such as the inherent value of all human beings. My central claim is that atheism rather than a theologically based value system offers the moral high ground.
Theism is defined as the belief in a God or Gods. The term theism is sometimes used to designate the belief in a particular kind of god the personal God of monotheism but, theism signifies the belief in any god or number of Gods. The prefix a means without, so the term, a-theism literally means without theism, or without belief in a God or Gods. Atheism, therefore, is the absence of theistic belief. One who does not believe in the existence of a God or supernatural being is properly designated as an atheist.
Atheism is sometimes defined as the belief that there is no God of any kind, or the claim that a God cannot exist. While these are categories of atheism, they do not exhaust the meaning of atheism, and they are somewhat misleading with respect to the basic nature of atheism. Atheism, in its basic form, is not a belief it is the absence of belief. An atheist is not primarily a person who believes that a god does not exist; rather, he does not believe in the existence of a God.
What propels people toward atheism is above all a sense of revulsion against the excesses and failures of organized religion. Atheism is ultimately a worldview of fear a fear, often merited, of what might happen if religious maniacs were to take over the world.
The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none that does good. (Psalms 14.1)
This passage captures the essence of how the average religious person views atheism. Atheism is probably the least popular and least understood philosophical position in America today. It is often approached with fear and mistrust, as if one were about to investigate a doctrine that advocates a ...
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...imply because it is right, and not because of some ulterior motive. There is no need to create fictions for the purpose of moral motivation and to do what is right because one wants to avoid punishment, whether the punishment take the form of incarceration or eternal damnation. The right thing is for honorable people to act for the sake of a reward, whether that reward is worldly or otherworldly. Moreover, a God who will forgive any and all sins does more to promote wrong acts than any secular philosophy. Atheists can avoid these pitfalls since they typically embrace the principle that virtue is its own reward.
However, religion can and does play a meaningful role in many lives. A great number of individuals lead a morally good life precisely because of their religious commitments. A deeply ingrained personal faith can provide one with the strength to face hardship and overcome adversity. Hope thrives for those who believe an in an omniscient and all-powerful God, but God and religion are form a necessity to act righteously. Believers and nonbelievers need to work together to live up to the highest moral standards for society to survive as a whole.
“Religion Gives Meaning to Life” outlines how life is given meaning through theistic religion in Louis Pojman’s opinion. In this short reading, autonomy is described as in the meaning of freedom or self-governing and argues how it is necessary for ideal existence. By being honest and faithful with ourselves shows how we can increase our autonomy. “I think most of us would be willing to give up a few autonotoms for an enormous increase in happiness” (553) shows our willingness to practice good purpose.
However, despite this when their belief is challenged, “They are able to show that it is not blind and unthinking”. Atheists don’t believe that any form of a God exists; they believe that everything (the world and its inhabitants etc) just appeared. The atheistic view says: “there is no explanation”.
Smith, J. Becoming an Atheist in America: Constructing Identity and Meaning from the Rejection of Theism. Sociology of Religion [serial online]. Summer 2011; 72(2):215-237. Accessed April 20, 2014.
Whether god exists or not has been in discussion for thousands of years, and an important discussion. Whether it is rational to believe in god or not is another story, like believing in god itself, this topic has brought many discussions. It is one thing to discuss whether god is real or not and it is a complete other to discuss whether it is rational to believe in god or not. I believe that while there may not be any convincing evidence or arguments that God does exist, I do still believe that it is still rational to believe that god does exist. I think this because, believing in God is not simply just believing that he exists, but believing that it can bring good to our lives, we otherwise would not have. It teaches us to have a moral responsibility not only to others, but ourselves. It is obvious that many people do believe in god, but many of us choose to do so for reasons other than just believing in God. I do believe that just because there is no evidence, that does not mean God doesn’t exist. Like I said, God brings more to our lives than just a belief, but an ability to achieve a better one. And even if God is just an imaginary figure, he is an imaginary figure that brings hope and goodness to our lives, which we can never discount.
H.J McCloskey’s article, “On Being an Atheist,” is an attempt to show atheism as a more practical alternative to the Christian belief. McCloskey reasons against the theistic beliefs of the cosmological argument, the teleological argument and design. He references the presence of evil in a world created by God and the absurdity of living by faith. This article is an attempt to reason that God does not exist because He is perfect and the world is not perfect; evil exists therefore God cannot exist. McCloskey’s article labels these arguments as “proofs” and concludes none of these arguments would be evidence of God’s existence. I find McCloskey’s article to lack logic and coherence which only serves to invalidate his arguments. I find this little more than an attempt to justify his own atheistic worldview.
Just because they do not believe in a God does not mean they are evil and absurd people. Not believing there is a God or not does not make a person evil. Another misconception is that agnosticism is a minority group. Like stated before, atheism, agnosticism, and unaffiliated religion have been increasing drastically over the years in the United States. People can also misinterpret agnostics that are prejudiced against religious people.
Religion motivates people to not stray from the path of virtue, but in return, their fear of God keeps those who believe from deviating from the morals set in place by the bible. This can be problematic. You see, people following God’s rules would not be doing so for the right reasons, instead they do it because they fear God’s wrath. This person would be unreliable in terms of morality, and would probably stray from God’s morals if they believed God would not offer a reward for their ‘good’ behavior.
Slezak, P. "Gods of the State: Atheism, Enlightenment and Barbarity." Politics and Religion in the New Century: Philosophical Reflections (2009): 20. Web. 20 Oct. 2012.
Theology is an intentionally reflective endeavor. Every day we reflect upon the real, vital, and true experience of the benevolent God that exists. We as humans tend to be social beings, and being so we communicate our beliefs with one another in order to validate ourselves. Furthermore atheism has many forms, three of the most popular atheistic beliefs include: scientific atheism, humanistic atheism and the most popular one being protest atheism. Scientific atheism is the idea that science is the answer for everything and god is not existent. The humanistic approach states that society is self-sufficient; therefore God is not needed for survival. Therefore how could he exist? The position that I will argue in this paper is the pessimistic idea of protest atheism.
Alain de Botton, the author of Religion for atheists : a non-believer's guide to the uses of religion believes that agents should be able to stay as committed atheists and still find religions practical, compelling and encouraging. It is possible for atheists to be uninterested by the doctrines of the Christian Trinity and the Buddhist Eightfold Path and nonetheless at the same time be provided with the ways in which religions save sermons, advocate morality, provoke a spirit of community, inspire travels, motivate gratitude. In the first section of the book 'Wisdom without Doctrine', de Botton holds that it is possible for atheists to balance a disbelief in religion with a selective admiration for religious ceremonies and notions.
Divine command ethics is a theory that states, that an action's moral content is equivalent to if it was commanded by God. It states that if God is all powerful, then he must also be all good. It then follows that if God is all good, everything He commands must be moral. It uses God as the only basis of determining if a particular action is moral. Moreover it states that an action cannot be moral if, God did not expressly command the action to be performed, this theory also does not allow an atheist to be able to perform a moral action even by mistake. Since the morality of the action depends entirely on if God would have commande...
5. Smith, J. M. (2011). Becoming an atheist in America: Constructing Identity and Meaning from
God can be defined as a being conceived as the perfect, omnipotent, omniscient originator and ruler of the universe, the principal object of faith and worship in monotheistic religions (1). There are many people that do not believe in any religion. People who do not believe in a religion have no reason for believing in a God. People who do not believe in a God and argue against the existence of God are proving something that is completely false. There is a God for numerous reasons.
Galen, L. W. (2012). Does religious belief promote prosociality? a critical examination. Psychological Bulletin, 138(5), 876-906 inclusive. doi: 1939-1455 (Electronic)
Let’s start off by explaining what atheism is, it’s when you don’t believe in any form of an “Intelligent Creator” or God, as usually referred to as. The word atheism comes from the root word “theism”, which is when you believe in a God, or numerous Gods depending on the religion, and the prefix “a”, which means “not”. There are no set practices of atheism, or a set list of beliefs. To be an atheist you must believe what you would like and simply live your life without constraints based on what you believe is good or bad, not what you are told is good or bad. There is a constant debate against atheism from the theist side, because both sides’ arguments are polar opposites and each believes their side of the argument is 100% valid. I will state my view on some arguments, and clarify some common atheist stereotypes.