Golmer's Blog

Ask any Christian, and they will tell you that the source of morality, not only for them, but for everyone, is instilled in each and every human by God. If it weren’t so, they argue, then people would be free to do whatever they want whenever they want, including running around raping, killing, pillaging, and plundering at will. Morality exists because God exists and HE put it in everyone.

Of course there are several serious problems with that stance. The least of which is that not everyone believes in God - not all societies believe in God, and the God of Ibraham is, relatively new on the scale of human history (only 2000 years old, mind you), and yet morality and moral concepts predate the Ibrahimic religion.

Next, if God instilled morality in every single person, regardless of their religion, from whence does evil come? If everyone’s moral compass is based on God’s absolute truth, how is it that morality, even amongst various Christian groups, is so fungible? If God instilled morality in every single person then why do we have such a hard time keeping people’s moral compasses on true north? 

If “the” morality is laid out in the Christian bible and is the only fount of wisdom that can be used to make one moral, then that would mean every single person and every society that predated it or doesn’t adhere to it was or is immoral. That is simply untrue. Different individuals, groups, and peoples have differing concepts of morality, but morality can’t be argued to not exist in those peoples and places.

Of course there is a really logical and simple answer. Morality isn’t a function of religion. It isn’t a function of having been instilled in every person by some farce of a being. In fact, morality is completely and utterly separable from ANY religion. Morality is a function of SOCIETY - group think - and people’s interactions with each other. Groups of people band together for common good. That grouping necessitates certain rules - rules to keep the group cohesive and functioning.

The particulars of a group’s “morality” are highly flexible based on the group’s makeup, history, needs, wants, desires, religions, resources, etc. Of course there is a lot of overlap of “core” principles that transcend each society - like proscribing murder, rape, theft, harming children, etc. but those are concepts that are borne out by necessity - no society could possibly exist where those things are the “norm.” Practically everything else is “negotiable.”

Even the Christians themselves condoned and even thrived using slavery, beatings, torture, murder, subjugation of women, etc., yet those things weren’t deemed “immoral.” They still thrive on belittling and repressing peoples and groups they don’t agree with. The simple truth is that religion, aside from proscribing the same things that ANY society independent of religion would develop anyway because of normal human sociology, really can only make additional “moral” rules regarding their particular religious dogma. And their 10 commandments only get 3 or so universally accepted moral principles correct - everything else deals with the primacy of their particular god.

The argument that if we didn’t have some ultimate authority to trace morality back to is fallacious, because belief in the existence of such a being, let alone its will, cannot be proven or conveyed, and yet morality exists independent of that belief.

If you really need to see that morality is independent of religion and totally a function of society, all one has to do is watch what happens whenever society breaks down for some length of time. “Morality” quickly flies out the window - even amongst the most religious of societies and groups.