Moral Without Religion
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MORAL WITHOUT RELIGION?
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Moral Without Religion?
An argument in todays time, as relevant as in the days of George Washington, is whether or not one can have good morals without the belief in God. Since God has a specific meaning in some religions, the term deity will be used to keep this argument non-denominational. Washington said in his farewell address “reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle” (G. Washington 1796). Washington believed morals had a divine origin. Dr. Marc Hauser, a professor of psychology from Harvard, argues that people such as atheists and agnostics are moral because they have a strong sense of right and wrong. All religions do not share a set of morals. Some are even disregarded by others. For example Sharia law allows for lapidation, or stoning to death, and some religions allow polygamy, while others condemn it. Because religions do not set a universal set of morals, a person can be moral without the belief in a deity.
In order to support the thesis, a clear definition of morals needs to be explained. Merriam Webster defines moral as:
“1. a : of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behavior : ethical
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Benjamin Franklin wrote of moral perfection, and referred to morals as “a steady, uniform rectitude of conduct.” (B. Franklin 1733). Franklin assigned 13 virtues to further explain morals. Some of these are: temperance, order, sincerity, and tranquility. A person with morals is a person who has good manners, character, and a proper behavior.
The next step in supporting the thesis is to show examples of morality without any divine influence. Atheists are people who do not believe in a deity, and agnostics are people who neither believe a deity exists or not exists. Research has been done to show that religious and non-religious people answer the same way to moral dilemmas. In an online moral test, Dr. Marc Hauser asked: “A runaway trolley is about to run over 5 people walking on the tracks. A railroad worker is standing next to a switch that can turn the trolley onto a sidetrack, killing one person, but allowing the other 5 to survive.” In his study, 1500 subjects answered, and 90% said it was permissible to flip the switch. In his study, some subjects could not offer explanations for their answers, and religious subjects were just as clueless about their answers as the atheist subjects. Dr. Marc Hauser shows that people will act morally, whether they have religious influences in their life or not.
More evidence that religion is not necessary for someone to be moral is found in the study of primates. In Dr. Marc Hausers extensive studies of primates, he has found that primates have a similar moral cognition to humans. He has shown that primates are able to demonstrate behaviors such as fairness, punishment and protection of young-traits of humans. Dr. Hauser claims that humans have a moral organ that has evolved over time. He claims that humans and animals are programmed at birth with morals. He uses primates for his study
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because they are not under any influence of religious beliefs. Dr. Hauser provides good data in showing morality without religion
Many people believe that morals come from religious teachings, but some researchers such as Dr. Marc Hauser has shown that atheists and agnostics have the ability to display moral behavior. He has shown through morality tests, and the study of primates. Having a moral behavior is; knowing right from wrong. Religion can claim to teach moral behavior, and they do, but they cannot claim sole responsibility in teaching morals. Every religion has different