Morality

Morality.

I've often been told that morality stems from religion. That without religion people would murder, rape, steal, and cheat. It matters not to the purveyors of such drivel that there’s not a skerrick of proof in support of their contention; they need to believe it in order to justify their faith. Instead of responding with a contemptuous snort, as I ought, I counter their inanity with reason and logic, on occasion offering myself as an example of a moral being unshackled by religion – not always with resounding success.
These blanket statements usually come from adherents of one of the monotheistic cults derived from ancient Judaism; Christianity or Islam. As it is always useful to know the enemy, I once took a close look at their faiths but found little to inspire confidence in their ‘moral authority’. Their holy books and eye-witness accounts of what it was like to live in their theocracies, provide tales of slavery, infant mutilation, subjugation of women, human and animal sacrifice, war, genocide, tortures, murder, rape, theft... Nothing I could construe as morally elevating, which made me curious. Where do they get their ‘holier than thou’ attitude?
Most secular ethicists agree that moral, [socially acceptable] human conduct is the product of thousands of years of survival. Thus, a moral act in its most basic form is one that assists in the preservation of the species. Murder, rape, theft and cheating one’s fellows will not contribute to human survival and are therefore immoral acts. There’s nothing religious or ‘god given’ in that... merely common sense.
A few minutes more thinking led me to the conclusion that modern Jewish/Christian/Islamic moral codes can be divided into two main categories:
1. ‘Natural’ or ‘Evolutionary’ morality. Anthropological studies of humans who lived long before civil societies or any form of organised religion involving supernatural deities emerged, show that hunter-gatherer tribes embraced values such as kindness, generosity, consideration, affection, honesty, hospitality, compassion, charity, humour, gentleness, egalitarianism, listening, respect for the elderly, love of children, diligent respect for the land, plants and animals: - all behaviours that derive from necessity. This moral code ensured human survival and, although it has no basis in religion, remains more or less intact, having been incorporated into the moral codes of modern religions.
2. ‘Political’ morality. When humans began to gather in towns, organised religions in their quest for power, invented additional moral codes based not on the survival of humanity, but on the survival of the religion. This ‘non-survival moral code’ decreed that innate, natural human behaviour is immoral except in certain circumstances decided by the religious bosses. It was a stroke of genius that made sinners of everyone and instilled deep-seated feelings of ineradicable guilt that, with the threat of an afterlife in heaven or hell, proved to be a weapon mightier than the sword.
Examples of non-survival-based so-called ‘morals’ are: Women are not equal – they must obey men; sex outside marriage is a sin; homosexuality is a sin; eating too much is a sin; masturbation is a sin; worshipping any other god is a sin; not worshipping god is a sin; using god’s name in vain is a sin; thinking ‘wrong’ thoughts is a sin; not cutting off your foreskin is a sin; envy is a sin; desiring material possessions is a sin; discarding the religion you were born into is a sin, sleeping too much is a sin; not working hard enough to make a profit for your employer is a sin.... the list is long and has nothing whatever to do with morality, but everything to do with manipulation through guilt. [Never forget that the big three monotheistic religions are primarily political organisations intent on gaining temporal power through mysticism and dogma instead of physical force – although they are perfectly prepared to use that if required, and have done so, and are doing so, with disastrous results for those caught in the crossfire.]
What I find especially bizarre is that despite their guilt-inducing moral code, Jews, Christians and Muslims continue to adore ancient con-men like Abraham who was a slave owner, a bigamist, indulged in animal and human sacrifice, led his tribe on orgies of rape, pillage, arson and war, committed genocide, probably incest, and lied about his age.

Ethics is the study of morality and asks questions such as how moral values should be determined, what morals people actually abide by, what is the fundamental nature of morality, including whether it has any objective justification, how moral capacity or moral agency develops and what its nature is. As most ethicists carry emotional and religious baggage from their own upbringing, their conclusions should be treated with scepticism.
Evolutionary biologists, who in my opinion understand more about the subject than ivory tower ethicists, assume that moral codes are a product of evolutionary forces; founded on behaviour that aided survival and reproduction. Our present moral complexity, as represented in the proliferation of laws, is due to the increasing need to avoid disputes and injuries; to cope with increasing group size; and to increase national prosperity. But this has nothing to do with religion.
The great tragedy of humanity is that having invented their own self-serving set of additional ‘morals’, religions then claim they are the source of all the ‘Natural’ ones as well! The upshot being that ignorant politicians lump all morality together and take purely religious, non-survival ‘moral codes’ into consideration when making laws!
It seems reasonable to expect that having imposed their perverted value system on society, religious adherents would at least abide by it. But they don’t. ‘You may not kill,’ bleat priests, imams and rabbis while blessing troops as they leave to kill opponents in foreign countries in order to shore up supplies of oil or subdue dissent. ‘Obey god’s commandments,’ shrill the fundamentalists on their way to murder gays, abortion doctors and adulterers. ‘Do not steal!’ exhort the priests while pocketing billions of dollars of state hand-outs and refusing to account for, or pay tax on, the gigantic profits made by their commercial enterprises – knowing full well that by doing so they are stealing from honest taxpayers.
Over the centuries, non-religious communities have adopted acceptable moral codes, proving the falsity of the notion that without religion there would be no morality. The so-called ‘Golden Rule’ – treat others as you would like to be treated – has been embraced by secular humans since the dawn of time – but ignored by religions if it interferes with their goals. The eightfold path of Buddhism and the ancient Egyptian code of Ma’at each embody concepts of truth, order, and justice while addressing metaphysical questions such as, ‘how should we live?’
Certainly, whatever is wrong with Western culture, there are no religious remedies for it, for they have all been tried
Good and bad are subjective tags we place on actions according to our circumstances and I've come to the conclusion that it’s pointless to argue with people who are unable to view things with a modicum of objectivity, and who ignore scientific advances. When morality becomes an article of faith, not reason, then we are dealing with insanity.

January 2008.