Morality without religion

Morality without religion is the aspect of philosophy that deals with morality outside of religious traditions. Examples include humanism and most versions of consequentialism.

Positions

See also: Ethics in religion and Secular ethics

The subject of morality without religion is dealt with by several prominent secular scholars as well as more popular culture-based atheist and anti-religious writers. These include Robert Buckman (2002) Can we be good without God, Richard Dawkins (2006) The God Delusion, Michael Shermer (2004) The Science of Good and Evil, Christopher Hitchens (2007) God Is Not Great, Paul Chamberlain (1996) Can we be good without God and Richard Holloway (1999) Godless Morality: Keeping religion out of ethics.

"Many today ... argue that religious beliefs are necessary to provide moral guidance and standards of virtuous conduct in an otherwise corrupt, materialistic, and degenerate world."^[1] For example, Christian writer and medievalist C. S. Lewis made the argument in his popular book Mere Christianity that if a supernatural, objective standard of right and wrong does not exist outside of the natural world, then right and wrong becomes mired in the is-ought problem. Thus, he wrote, preferences for one moral standard over another become as inherently indefensible and arbitrary as preferring a certain flavor of food over another or choosing to drive on a certain side of a road.^[2] In the same vein, Christian theologian Ron Rhodes has remarked that "it is impossible to distinguish evil from good unless one has an infinite reference point which is absolutely good."^[3] In contrast to this view, Bernard Williams argued that, "Either one's motives for following the moral word of God are moral motives, or they are not. If they are, then one is already equipped with moral motivations, and the introduction of God adds nothing extra. But if they are not moral motives, then they will be motives of such a kind that they cannot appropriately motivate morality at all ... we reach the conclusion that any appeal to God in this connection either adds to nothing at all, or it adds the wrong sort of thing."^[4]

Peter Robinson, a political author and commentator with Stanford's Hoover Institution, has commented that, if an inner moral conscience is just another adaptive or evolved feeling in the human mind like simple emotional urges, then no inherent reason exists to consider morality as over and above other urges.^[5] According to Thomas Dixon, "Religions certainly do provide a framework within which people can learn the difference between right and wrong."^[1]

Theists are often careful to argue that absence of belief in God(s) does not necessarily lead to immoral behavior. Atheists and agnostics, theistic philosophers and apologists frequently argue, can act just as morally as themselves with respect to social conduct. Cases can also be seen in nature of animals exhibiting behavior we might classify as "moral" without religious directives to guide them. These include "detailed studies of the complex systems of altruism and cooperation that operate among social insects" and "the posting of altruistic sentinels by some species of bird and mammal, who risk their own lives to warn the rest of the group of imminent danger."^[6]

Some survey and sociological literature suggests that theists do no better than their secular counterparts in the percentage adhering to widely held moral standards (e.g., steering clear of lying, theft, and sexual infidelity).^[7] Proponents of theism argue that without a God or gods it is impossible to justify moral behavior on metaphysical grounds and thus to make a coherent case for abiding by moral standards. C. S. Lewis makes such an argument in Mere Christianity.

Various counterarguments have been made by non-religious thinkers. For example, popular atheist author and biologist Richard Dawkins, writing in The God Delusion, has stated that religious people have committed a wide variety of acts and held certain beliefs through history that are considered today to be morally repugnant. He has stated that Adolf Hitler and the Nazis held broadly Christian religious beliefs that inspired the Holocaust on account of antisemitic Christian doctrine, that Christians have traditionally imposed unfair restrictions on the legal and civil rights of women, and that Christians have condoned slavery of some form or description throughout most of Christianity's history. Dawkins insists that, since Jewish and Christian interpretations of the Bible have changed over the span of history so that what was formerly seen as permissible is now seen as impermissible, it is intellectually dishonest for them to believe theism provides an absolute moral foundation apart from secular intuition. In addition, he argued that since Christians and other religious groups do not acknowledge the binding authority of all parts of their holy texts (e.g., The Book of Leviticus states that Hebrews caught performing acts of homosexuality were to be put to death.), they are already capable of distinguishing "right" from "wrong."^[8]

Bernard Williams, an English philosopher best known for his criticism of utilitarian ethics, stated that the secular "utilitarian outlook"—a popular ethical position wherein the morally right action is defined as that action which effects the greatest amount of happiness or pleasure for the greatest number of people—is "non-transcendental, and makes no appeal outside human life, in particular not to religious considerations."^[9]

Atheistic philosopher Julian Baggini stated that "there is nothing to stop atheists believing in morality, a meaning for life, or human goodness. Atheism is only intrinsically negative when it comes to belief about God. It is as capable of a positive view of other aspects of life as any other belief."^[10] He also states that "Morality is more than possible without God, it is entirely independent of him. That means atheists are not only more than capable of leading moral lives, they may even be able to lead more moral lives than religious believers who confuse divine law and punishment with right and wrong.^[11]

Popular atheist author and Vanity Fair writer Christopher Hitchens has remarked on the program Uncommon Knowledge:

I think our knowledge of right and wrong is innate in us. Religion gets its morality from humans. We know that we can't get along if we permit perjury, theft, murder, rape, all societies at all times, well before the advent of monarchies and certainly, have forbidden it... Socrates called his daemon, it was an inner voice that stopped him when he was trying to take advantage of someone... Why don't we just assume that we do have some internal compass?^[5]

Alternatively, some non-religious nihilistic and existentialist thinkers have affirmed the prominent theistic position that the existence of the personal God of theism is linked to the existence of an objective moral standard, asserting that questions of right and wrong inherently have no meaning and, thus, any notions of morality are nothing but an anthropogenic fantasy. Agnostic author and Absurdist philosopher Albert Camus discussed the issue of what he saw as the universe's indifference towards humankind and the meaninglessness of life in his prominent novel The Stranger, in which the protagonist accepts death via execution without sadness or feelings of injustice. In his philosophical work, The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus argues that human beings must choose to live defiantly in spite of their longing for purpose or direction and the apparent lack of evidence for God or moral imperatives.^{[citation needed]} The atheistic existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre proposed that the individual must create his own essence and therefore must freely and independently create his own subjective moral standards by which to live.

See also

• Secular ethics
• Science of morality

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Dixon, Thomas (2008). Science and Religion: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 115. ISBN 978-0-19-929551-7. 
2. ^ C. S. Lewis (2001). Mere Christianity. HarperCollins. pp. 3–28. 
3. ^ Ron Rhodes. "Strategies for Dialoguing with Atheists". Reasoning from the Scriptures Ministries. http://home.earthlink.net/~ronrhodes/Atheism.html. Retrieved January 4, 2010. 
4. ^ Williams, Bernard (1972). Morality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 64–65. ISBN 0521457297. 
5. ^ ^{a b} "Hitchens—The Morals of an Atheist". Uncommon Knowledge. August 23, 2007. http://www.hoover.org/multimedia/uk/9692512.html. Retrieved January 4, 2010. 
6. ^ Dixon, Thomas (2008). Science and Religion: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-19-929551-7. 
7. ^ See, for instance, Ronald J. Sider, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience: Why Are Christians Living Just Like the Rest of the World? (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 2005). Sider quotes extensively from polling research by The Barna Group showing that moral behavior of evangelical Christians is unexemplary.
8. ^ Richard Dawkins. The God Delusion. p. 281. 
9. ^ Williams, Bernard (1972). Morality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 83. ISBN 0521457297. 
10. ^ Baggini, Julian (2003). Atheism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 3. ISBN 978-0-19-280424-2. 
11. ^ Baggini, Julian (2003). Atheism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-19-280424-2. 

External links

• Morality without religion, by Marc Hauser
• Can we be good without God 1996, Paul Chamberlain ISBN 0-8308-1686-0
• Video: Marc Hauser, Pt 3 Is there morality without religion?