WHAT’S MORALITY WITHOUT RELIGION?

It’s the age-old pseudo-argument: that people don’t need religion in order to be moral. Problem is, what is morality without religion? It’s just one set of preferences against another. If there is no transcendent standard to adhere to, then anything goes. What religion does provide is a grounding for morality; it establishes the basis for morality. Does this mean that all religions advocate good morals? Not really. Some religions can be pretty horrible when it comes to ethics and morality. But to use the immoral standards of some religions to criticise religion as a whole is to make the error of making a category judgment on the basis of a few. So the point here is not to determine which religions teach good morals and which don’t. The point is to determine whether morals have any objective basis for existing in the absence of religion. And the answer is a definite, “No”. Because in the absence of a transcendent standard (which only religion can provide), all we’re left with is subjective preference. And we know that defining moral and ethical behaviour on the basis of an — I THINK SO — just doesn’t work.

It’s not rocket science. But even clever people seem to have a hard time getting their heads around that.