Morality, religion and atheism

Morality and Religion

Morality has absolutely nothing to do with religion. Some secular moralists contribute significantly to providing values, and they encounter challenges just like other moralists do. Nevertheless, there are still reasons for being human in a godless world, yet there would be no human existence without Him.

Acquiring Moral Ideals Without Theology

First off, moral ideals can be acquired without a strong theological foundation. For instance, a man’s happiness is mostly influenced by his ability to consistently feel content if he succeeds in achieving his goals. Hence, depending on the decisions made, various actions taken by individuals might either make them happy or miserable. For instance, the writer quotes there are a lot of people who have remained happy even after the death of God.

Secular Origins of Happiness

Furthermore, there are permanent origins of happiness that are purely from the secular world. Human beings need security and emotional peace. No one wants to live a life full of threats in this world. Hence it is a significant requirement for one to live a good life. Moreover, human love and companion are also very essential. The latter is prized much, and without them, no man would have desired to live because both are possible in the Godless world.

Kindness and Moral Concern

Moreover, the virtue of kindness to the suffering people in the community can be applied by anyone. It is not worthwhile to see someone suffer and not give a hand of assistance. It is essential to fight for the racial and social equality all over the world. Suffering at some point is good because it gives the person virtues of love and kindness because of the experience. The origin can be clearly explained by neither a religious man nor a secularist. The latter understand that suffering is not something to justify but struggled against using values like courage and dignity.

Moral Concern and Its Origin

Moral concern may have come historically form the religious conceptions, but the principle of logic argues that validity of the belief is independent of its origin. For example, a Christian moralist only teaches the law of respect but not justify on how to do so. He will merely subscribe to his well-known principle, ’Always do what God wills.’ It appears to be more straightforward to the religious moralist but very complicated because he must subscribe to extraordinary dubious notions like the man is a creature of God and such has no worth.

God-Centered Ethics vs. Utilitarianism

From ’The Philosophers’ Magazine’ article, utilitarianism which means right or wrong on the grounds of maximising pleasure and happiness is far from God-centered ethics. The ethics purely major on the human nature and society. Otherwise, utilitarianism instead gives us the mandate to judge God’s commands. One major problem is that we don’t know whether

Personal Choice and the Existence of God

God exists or not. Hence it is a personal choice to believe or not. However, it very vital to act like He doesn’t exist and doesn’t interfere with human morals because all the dilemmas experienced could be solved to some extent.

The Euthyphro Dilemma

Plato, brings in the dilemma in his discussion by questioning ’is what that is morally good commanded by God because it is or it is morally good because God has commanded it?’ The question needs a lot of brainstorming because ever since it has become a theological and philosophical discussion to date. For example, Socrates and Euthyphro discussion gave rise to their two theories. However, Euthyphro’s theory is found to be more qualitative because it argued, ’what makes the God-beloved the God-beloved, is because of god’s love it.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it can be stated that moral values depend on the human life nature and the world at large. It is so because some people don’t believe in God’s existence but still employ the virtues that make others feel they are morally upright. The Godless world still applies principles that have been made by human to show others’ morals like respect and kindness to the suffering. Lastly, most dilemmas are caused by the based religious beliefs that have no basis of argument. Maybe, if humans assume the existence of God, a lot of difficulties could be solved.

References

Garvey, J., Kazez, J., Mason, J., Baggini, J. and LaBossiere, M., Talking philosophy-the philosophers’ magazine blog.

Meynell, H., 1972. The Euthyphro Dilemma. In Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society (Vol. 72, pp. 223-234).

Pojman, Louis P. “Ethical Theory Classical and Contemporary Readings.” (1995).