Religion and Morality

Found this really excellent article on morality/ethics. I can't post the site itself seeing as how I got asked to take a link down to another site that contained a few cuss words.

I'll quote a few part's that are decent enough.

Ask me to kill another human being that has never done me personal harm...I wont do it. Why? Because it’s wrong. Because I'm depriving him of his life and if he has not threatened me with violence and not done anything to me, it is wrong to kill him. I know that. I don’t need a god to dictate that to me. That’s not guilt that keeping me from killing him. Its injustice…I know its wrong and so I don’t do it because it’s not right. No guilt necessary.

Guilt would be required to get me TO do it. I’d have to be guilted into doing something that I know fundamentally is wrong. That guilt is what we willing offer up for the responsibility for our action that religion assumes. In return for making me no longer responsible for my actions, I now give you my guilt by which you can ask me to do anything. Need me to kill that guy in your name? I’ll go it because you’ve absolved me of the responsibility and now I can betray my own sense of innate justice because I feel like I owe you.

In the name of religious righteousness, hundreds of people are killing total strangers every day because they believe god has told them to do so. Because they have forsaken their own sense of justice to a “higher” one.

Explain that. Please. I'd love to know how you can justify that. Sure it’s easy to say something like that "Atheists have no soul and no sense of right and wrong" but please be prepared to show me how religion have done better.

... SNIP ...

Atheists are not murdering criminals. In fact take a look at every murdering criminal on Death Row…who do you think is depicted in their tattoos? What book are they reading? Not high school physics, I promise you. They are reading the one book that absolves them of personal responsibility for their actions. They are visited by mystic priests who seek to convince them that this earth is a temporary one, and they will get another shot because they ****** this one up so bad.

The article quotes this part is quoted from www.religioustolerance.org...

“Many Agnostics, Atheists and Humanists have a negative attitude towards traditional formal religions. Some feel that:

Reliance on an interaction with a mythical deity interferes with one's ability to interact with fellow humans.

Reliance on god's will, and expectations of an eternity spent in Heaven reduce our motivation to solve our own problems on earth. This leads to many social evils being neglected.

Such religions promote the idea that perfectly natural feelings (such as anger, lust, pride, wanting things) are evil and sinful. But feelings are not normally under conscious control. The result can be debilitating feelings of guilt where none should be present.

That traditional beliefs are often supported by fear of eternal punishment after death and by fear of retaliation by an angry and vengeful god during this lifetime. To live in a state of fear is unhealthy.

According to a study by Barna Research, "roughly 7% of the adult population - approximately 14 million people - describe themselves as atheistic or agnostic. America has more atheists and agnostics than Mormons (by a 3 to 1 margin), Jews (by a 4 to 1 margin) or Muslims (by a 14 to 1 margin). In at least one area of life, they exhibit strong "family values". According to Barna Research, they have one of the lowest (if not the lowest) divorce rate of any religious group -- much lower than for conservative Christians, for example.”

This is one of my biggest problem's with religous people. They like to sit there and claim atheist's are without morals or don't have to uphold morals.

Look at religion. They have a SCAPEGOAT around their wrong doings. So long as they repent their sin's, everything is peachy fine in the eyes of their God. They can be murderous bastards fresh out of jail, yet if they proclaim to be "saved", they will get accepted by a christian before an athiest will. He's now one of them in their eyes! You christian's don't have to be moral, you can repent your way into "goodness"! You can go on a killing spree, so long as you REPENT. We athiest don't have that "luxury". We actually take RESPONSABILITY for our OWN actions. But nah, not you guy's. God says kill, GO KILL. Go hold a holy war. Just be sure you repent your sins when your done. Or let's blame some action's on those terrible evil demon's.

Atleast we take responsability for ourselve's. Atleast we TRY our best. You get ONE life to live. Do it right. Do it without pawning YOUR actions off onto something else.