Is Religion Necessary for Morality


Conventional wisdom floats around until someone does an exhaustive study and determines if it is correct of not. A good example was the Turnaway study of women who received or did not receive abortions. Among other things, it established forcefully that abortions do not harm women. The conventional wisdom that women were left wounded was so commonly believed it was repeated by a Supreme Court Judge. 

A commonly repeated conventional wisdom is that it is impossible to establish a firm version of morality unless the morality is based on Christianity which, in turn, is based on the Bible. A wonderful paper is available which defines clearly what is meant by "morality" and whether religion is necessary to hold moral views or practice life in a moral way. 

Using public opinions and written materials from religions around the world, the link concludes that "morality" is about relationships with other people, not relationships with any god. Being honest, generous, considerate of others the so on is having high morals. It is not about believing in a god.

I know this will fall on deaf ears with the faithful. But it's worth bringing up whenever they toss out their B.S. about the faith providing "the basis for morals."

Gotta run to watch former Un. of Iowa basketball star Caitin Clark play for her pro team the Indiana Fever. 

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