Morality has nothing to do with religion

Here's another atheist-themed letter to the editor that my wife, Laurel, has been sending in monthly to our local newspaper, the Salem Statesman Journal. 

She makes some great points. Laurel's letters usually generate quite a few comments. This one has 18 so far.

Such as: "Thank you Laurel. Pompous, so-called 'Christians' make judgements that are not backed by facts. Their faith does not equal truth. Life is not black and white. We are a diverse world, so get over yourselves."

Absolutely! Read on for the letter.

Not all moral advances in society come from the religious

In a letter by Dale Kirby, he claimed society would have less terror, corruption, hate and adultery if everyone was guided by biblical principals.

He seems to assume that all non-believers live in hate and commit the most atrocious acts.

What about the Crusades, the World Trade Center attack (9/11) , the burning of witches, the torture and killing of gays which still occurs in some countries, all due to religious beliefs?

The Bible says Jesus did not disavow the First Testament, so never rejected all the horrible inter-cultural extermination, barbaric killing of children of other tribes, slavery, and subjugation of women God encouraged.

Even the New Testament condones slavery. To truly live by “biblical principles” we would still have slavery, treat women as disposable property, and be barbaric toward those who we consider “infidels”(just like ISIS).

Although many religious people are good, moral people, they would likely be good people anyway, just like the good atheists.

We learn to be good from our families and other influences. Thank goodness for the moral advances that the rational non-believers have brought to our society: ending slavery, women’s rights, gay rights, etcetera.

Laurel Hines
Salem

Comments

[John Gear]

https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/Steven_Weinberg

Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
Address at the Conference on Cosmic Design, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, D.C. (April 1999)

This comment is modified in a later article derived from these talks:
Frederick Douglass told in his Narrative how his condition as a slave became worse when his master underwent a religious conversion that allowed him to justify slavery as the punishment of the children of Ham. Mark Twain described his mother as a genuinely good person, whose soft heart pitied even Satan, but who had no doubt about the legitimacy of slavery, because in years of living in antebellum Missouri she had never heard any sermon opposing slavery, but only countless sermons preaching that slavery was God's will. With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil — that takes religion.

[Spencer Tepper]

Hi Brian

Laura wrote "Thank goodness for the moral advances that the rational non-believers have brought to our society: ending slavery, women’s rights, gay rights, etcetera."

Abe Lincoln was a believer. He had something to do with the abolition of slavery, as did the Quakers. Gandhi and Dr. King had something to do with civil rights, mainly leading it.

It's disappointing to see bias and blatantly false claims ruin an otherwise good point about formal religion.

[Bob]

The Founders of the Constitution, such as Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, acknowledged that our inherent rights and Liberty were granted to us by God (not by any person or government).
Take God or a Higher Power out of the equation, and the government becomes the sole giver and taker of our rights. IMO, this is a recipe for the annihilation of our Liberty and the development of an over-bearing and centralized government. Without God, the government becomes the ultimate judge and jury of our lives.