There are as many different viewpoints on morality and the divine as there are people in the world. Beliefs on morality and God are some of the most personal types of beliefs, and they cause some of the biggest problems in the world today. One of the biggest divides between people of different faiths-- and between people of faith and people without-- is whether or not humanity needs God to be moral and to live a moral, ethical life. Some religious orders teach that God is necessary for living a good, moral life, while others teach that knowing God helps the individual to live a good, moral life, but it is not necessary. The question of whether or not humanity can be good without God is an interesting and many-faceted question, and it is a question that has been posed in a variety of different ways, depending on the culture, the age in which the people were living, and the geographical location.
Christianity, in all of its various forms and iterations, teaches that the God of the Bible is a personal God (Craig, n.d.). This means that the Christian God-- the one associated with Christ and the New Testament, not the Old Testament-- is not an impersonal force driving the universe and everything in it; the God of Christianity has a vested interest in every one of His creations on earth. This is, after all, the fundamental theory behind why prayer works; God cares about His creations, and is therefore willing to hear and answer their prayers (Craig, n.d.). In the Christian faith, humanity was created in God’s image, with the ability to think, feel, and make choices (Tripp, 2000).
Within the Christian faith, God created humanity in his image, but God is wholly good: to Christians, this means that humanity is made to be good and moral, but God gave humanity the choice of whether or not to be moral beings (Tripp, 2000). When God told Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, He knew they had a choice: when they made that choice, they suffered the consequences and were cast from the Garden of Eden (Tripp, 2000). Adam and Eve, the ancestors of humanity, made a choice to do evil; had they listened to God and His word, they would have continued to live a moral life for an eternity in the Garden of Eden, in God’s presence (Tripp, 2000).
For many religious groups, the idea of morality is linked inextricably to the idea of God. In the triad of the Judeo-Christian faiths, God gave the people guidelines to live a moral life on earth (Craig, n.d.). However, some great thinkers have dug deeper into the issue, trying to discover the philosophical basis behind morality, and whether faith and morality are necessarily linked together as the religious would like to believe.
In his science-based discussion of the philosophical issue of morality and faith, Frans De Waal (2010) decries humanity’s insistence that morality and God are inextricably linked. He does not claim religion to be useless, nor does he claim religion should not be tolerated; instead, his argument stems from the idea that humanity is moral, and thus, humanity believes in God.
De Waal writes: For those who believe that morality comes straight from God the creator, acceptance of evolution would open a moral abyssSimilarly, I have heard people echo Dostoevsky’s Ivan Karamazov, exclaiming that “If there is no God, I am free to rape my neighbor!” Perhaps it is just me, but I am wary of anyone whose belief system is the only thing standing between them and repulsive behavior. Why not assume that our humanity, including the self-control needed for livable societies, is built into us? Does anyone truly believe that our ancestors lacked social norms before they had religion? (De Waal, 2010)
Many people who subscribe to a faith-based approach to morality will probably find De Waal’s scientific approach to morality cold, heartless, and inhuman. However, De Waal does raise an important question in the discussion of faith and morality: if the fear of eternal damnation is the only thing standing between an individual and heinous, immoral actions, is that individual truly a moral individual? Lack of action for fear of punishment does not necessarily absolve a person of his or her immoral thoughts; this is also one of the tenets of Christianity (Tripp, 2000). Thus, a person’s underlying character must be good-- with or without God-- to truly be considered moral on any real level.
However, this also raises the issue of how to define morality if there is no driving force like God behind it. Tripp (2000) writes, “Because God has created us as moral beings, if we are to live in a meaningful relationship with him then it is necessary that we exhibit the same moral character that he does. God and evil can have nothing in common. Here lies our greatest problem How can sinful humans have any relationship with God who is morally perfect?” (Tripp, 2000). Christianity’s answer to this problem is birth, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ (Tripp, 2000). Because human beings have the ability to sin-- and to sin horribly-- to come back to God’s image requires the acceptance of Jesus into one’s life (Tripp, 2000).
This belief is where the fundamental divide between Christians and non-Christians begins. Christians believe, for the most part, that acceptance of Jesus is fundamental to living a good, moral life; that Jesus’ teachings are the cornerstone of morality, but that without accepting Jesus as the Lord and Savior, living a so-called “moral” life is useless and an exercise in futility (Tripp, 2000). However, many non-Christians believe that living a moral life is enough to make them a moral person.
How does humanity define morality? As previously stated, morality and what constitutes a moral life is very different for everyone. However, there seem to be a few fundamental ideas that are universal for humanity around the world, regardless of culture, nationality, religion, gender, and so on. First, most major religions agree that killing is wrong; in the same vein, many religions teach that harming others is wrong under most circumstances (De Waal, 2010). Where does this belief come from? A religious individual may claim this belief comes from the human soul’s knowledge of God, a throwback to the time when humanity lived in God’s presence. An atheist, agnostic, or otherwise religiously-disinclined individual may say that the human belief in not harming or killing other people stems from humanity’s evolution as a social species (De Waal, 2010). Species that form complex social groups-- like humans-- cannot go around killing other members of their social group, because it would sow discontent, fear, and distrust between the members of the group (De Waal, 2010).
When trying to reduce morality down to the bare-bones philosophical theory, there is always a problem of subjectivity. When Plato discussed morality, he defined the “Good;” a nebulous philosophical concept that could not be defined a priori or a posteriori (Plato, 2006). It was from this concept of the “Good” that Plato built his philosophical structures; he could no more define what made something moral and good than he could split an atom. This is the philosophical stumbling block that has been problematic for centuries.
In reality, there is no concrete answer as to the existence of morality without God to build the foundation atop of. Even atheistic or agnostic individuals who act in a way that may be defined as “moral” may be acting in this way because of their spiritual memory of God’s goodness and love; conversely, religious individuals who link morality to God may be projecting millions of years of evolution onto the concept of God. What is known is that many cultures around the world subscribe to similar definitions of morality and moral behavior. This does seem to indicate that there is some kind of higher power driving people’s beliefs and thoughts in a moral, ethical direction.
References
Craig, W. (n.d.). Can We Be Good without God? | Reasonable Faith. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.reasonablefaith.org/can-we-be-good-without-god [Accessed: 21 Jul 2013].
De Waal, F. (2010). Morals Without God?. The New York Times, October 17.
Dye, L. (2013). Do We Need God to Be Moral?. ABC News, April 7.
Fairman, G. (2013). The Case for Morality and God. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/03/the_case_for_morality_and_god.html [Accessed: 21 Jul 2013].
Franciscan University of Steubenville (2009). Morality and God Conference | Franciscan University of Steubenville. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.franciscan.edu/News/2013/Morality-and-God-Conference/ [Accessed: 21 Jul 2013].
Plato. and Allen, R. (2006). The republic. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Schweitzer, J. (2013). God and Morality: Asking the Wrong Question. The Huffington Post, April 9.
Swinburne, R. (2008). God and Morality. Think, pp. 7-14.
Tripp, D. (2000). The only foundation for morality - the character of God. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.christianity.co.nz/moralit3.htm [Accessed: 21 Jul 2013].
