Mailbag: Religions and Ethics

From: "Hannah"
Subject: Resentment

Why all this resentment of religions? God cannot be tested like g or c. Believing in Him is personal. Religions have been responsible for giving us a code of ethics to follow which is the basis of common law. Whether you are christian hindu or any other creed you can't kill, rape, lie, steal,etc. Otherwise the next-door bully will clobber you everytime your mango leaves clutter his lawn while savouring the fruits just because you are not same colour or creed.

Resentment? I wonder why critiques of religion and religious beliefs should qualify as "resentment." Some critiques certainly could be construed as such - but Hannah never gives any indication about what on my site looks like "resentment" and why. She just doesn't seem to approve of my critiques generally.

That, in turn, seems to be based upon the idea that religions are necessary for the transmission of morality and for upholding ethical behavior. If that were true, then criticizing religion risks leading society into moral anarchy. The question is, is that true? No, I don't think so. It is true that religions have functioned to transmit moral values and principles, but that does not allow us to conclude that religions are needed for moral values and principles to be transmitted at all. The same task can be achieved via other means. Belief in a god or gods isn't necessary, either.

Hannah actually gives a clue as to why this is so: morality serves social groups by regulating behavior so that the group can survive. Without morality, people would just end up hurting and killing each other. We can see the rudimentary beginning of basic moral principles in other species related to us - something to be expected if morality evolved naturally as a function of complex social groups.

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