Morality is referring to a set of guidelines that are supposed to determine whether a behavior is right or wrong. The concept of morality is used to determine what behaviors are or are not considered acceptable within the society. There are many arguments both for and against the origin of morals. Some individuals think that morals are strictly originating from religion, while others think that it is something practiced and followed by all. While religion can sway some behaviors, it does not mean that a person has to believe in God to be able to have morals.
What Are Morals?
Religion is a building block for some in their way of controlling certain behaviors. With all the religions that are in the world, today, there would be a hard time trying to decipher which ones are responsible for the ideals of morality. If God was the basis for morality, it would exclude a large portion of the religions that are in the world. So this leads to the belief that there has to be a different reason for why a person is or is not moral. This itself seems as though it should be considered immoral.
Morality is taught through social interactions, not spiritual. Cultural heritage also is a big influence on what behaviors an individual will display. For example, a person that lives in the United States is taught to show emotions, while people in other countries are taught that it is wrong for them to do so. There may be some morals within a specific group that are considered to be religiously based morals. Yet there are others that are picked up through other methods.
Atheists Can Act Morally Too
People knew right from wrong, even before religion was ever started. This would mean that there had to be an innate sense of what is right or wrong before the belief or existence in the concept of God. If God were to determine what is right versus what is wrong, that would leave him being arbitrary, which makes him less worthy of worship. God is believed to allow man free will, so by him setting and enforcing moral guidelines, it does not show him as allowing the free will that is supposed to be available for all.
Free will means that people have the right to choose how they want to act or behave, in a given situation. This means that they can choose whether or not they want to believe in God. It also means that they could choose whether or not they want to act morally. That is why some believers are immoral, while some of the non-believers can be moral.
Free will is what allows people to decide how they choose to behave. Those that choose to be able to follow the ideals of right and wrong or morals should be able to be considered behaving morally. They are according in accordance to morals, so they should be seen as being moral. Morality describes the behaviors that a person has. The idea of following faith based teaching is called spiritual or religious. A person can be both religious and moral, but a person does not need to be religious to be moral.
Can A Person Be Moral Without God?
Another problem that comes from the idea of morals bring a part of religion is the fact that there are so many religions. So the problem becomes trying to decipher which religion would be the one that morality belongs to. Where one group may say that it is associated with their religion only, another may disagree. There are still many faiths that have similar moral standards to those of Christian based faith, yet they do not believe in the Christian concept of God. While other faiths may still believe in God, but they may have a different idea of who God is or what God is suppose to represent.
Atheists are Too Logical to Be Moral
While someone that does not believe in God may act morally, they do not know what determines these behaviors to be right or wrong, leaving them with looser morals. A common argument that tries to disprove morality existing without God is that they just know what is right or wrong, and they follow one side or the other, without clearly understanding why they are doing so. They do not know why these moral guidelines exist and therefore are not “being moral,” they are just acting upon rules and laws.
Without religion, a person cannot have a true idea of what is right versus what is wrong. The only reason someone that does not believe in the concept of God will follow particular rules is if there are laws saying that they have to do so. This is a reason that many think that there is no level of morality outside of the belief in God. They believe that without religion, there is no need for a person to be moral.
There is no rational or logic behind morals, which makes it less likely for a person, who does not believe in God to be willing to follow moral rules . This means that a person just acts upon morals without questioning the validity or reasoning behind these morals. Most atheists believe only in logical or rational beliefs. So, a person cannot be moral and atheist, because that would cause them to act in an irrational manner. It was shown in a study that those with more anger and resentment towards God viewed caused more protests toward God as acceptable. It would make sense to assume that this would make people less likely to follow morality.
Yet, even within religion there are immoral behaviors. A lot of the behaviors that are considered moral are typically made into laws. For example, good morals say that are person would not steal. While there are various levels of theft, all theft is illegal. So, it seems that there is a better chance of there being some level of logical reasoning behind morality, because in many cases laws are created to specify what morals a person should have.
Christians Can Be Immoral Too
Religion has a dark past of its own. The Catholic Church was responsible for the Crusades . There were actually multiple Crusades that took place, theses were church sanctioned killings that occurred towards anyone that did not believe in God. The Puritans were responsible for Salem Witch Trials. Some of the most noted examples of this were Bridget Bishop, Sarah Good, and John Proctor. These were both events where people were killed in the name of God.
If Christians are to believe that God is the reason for morals, then they are not following the teachings of their own beliefs. This is apparent in the fact that many within the Christian faith commit adultery or other similar “sins”. There is also many times where the people within the Christian religion will say that they are able to commit any act, and as long as forgiveness is asked for, they will be forgiven in their religion.
There is another issue that the aspect of religion, specifically the Catholic religion, has been blamed for. In the Catholic Church, it is not uncommon to hear stories of sexual abuse. Almost 300 priests and bishops were accused of this behavior in 2004, alone. There are similar cases belonging to other faiths, but religion seems to show Catholics being the most commonly known for this immoral behavior.
Why Would Someone Be Moral?
There are reasons to be moral as a non-believer. A person will still follow morals, as a result of the considering the consequences of their actions. A good example of this is if you get caught stealing from a store, you will get arrested. Cultural and social backgrounds can also be responsible for the individual determining what behaviors are right or wrong. Parents and other local adults teach children how to behave in a moral manner. This shows that a person does not need to have a religion to be able to follow moral acts, because they are able to learn how to be moral without the need for religion.
There are many behaviors that come from the idea of morality. There are some morals that are universal, meaning that all faiths practice them, while there are others that are single faith based. This is what causes the belief that there cannot be a link between religion and morality or between God and morality. If there was a link between these groups, there would be an issue with the number of people that act morally, but they have different belief structures from the others.
Conclusion
Culturally, behaviors are based on the needs of the society and the needs within the particular culture. These needs are what determine the behaviors of the individuals within the particular group. As time progresses, and these needs change, so does the ideals of what behaviors are or are not considered moral. Even though it was assumed that religion is the only form or morality, it is not the case. So a person can be moral without the need for believing in God or religion.
Works Cited
Atheism 101: Can you be moral without God? (2009, July 29). Retrieved October 20, 2013, from Examiner: http://www.examiner.com/article/atheism-101-can-you-be-moral-without-god
Can we be Good without Believing in God? (2011, March 16). Retrieved October 20, 2013, from Butterflies and Wheels: http://www.butterfliesandwheels.org/2011/can-we-be-good-without-believing-in-god/
Exline, J., Kaplan, K., & Grubbs, J. (2012, November). Anger, Exit, and Assertion: Do People See Protest Toward God as Morally Acceptable? Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 4(4), 264-277. Retrieved October 23, 2013
Frame, J., & Poythress, V. (1996). Do We Need God To Be Moral. Retrieved October 19, 2013, from Frame and Poythress: http://www.frame-poythress.org/do-we-need-god-to-be-moral/
Plante, T., & Daniels, C. (2004, May). The Sexual Abuse Crisis in the Roman Catholic: What Psychologists and Counselors. Pastoral Psychology, 52(5). Retrieved October 20, 2013, from http://www.psychologytoday.com/files/attachments/34033/pp3article.pdf
Schick, T. (1997). Morality Requires God or Does It? Retrieved October 20, 2013, from Council for Secular Humanism: http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=schick_17_3
