Why we need religion

[Diuretic]

We don't. Morality is not dependent upon religion.

Morality is about common sense, to a large degree.

 

[Bullypulpit]

Morality is about common sense, to a large degree.

...And centuries of observing the human condition.

 

[Bullypulpit]

Not forgetting the push in Thailand to have Buddhism declared as the state religion. It's getting political.

Under a certain Bodhi tree in northern India there is a great disturbance.

Indeed, that's the rationale the Chinese used to justify their invasion and occupation of Tibet...To free the Tibetan people from an oppressive theocracy.

However, having met the Dalai Lama and worked with one of his teachers, I can categorically state that if there WAS any oppression, it didn't come from them. Those are some of the holiest people I have ever encountered...They walk the walk.

 

[LOki]

Of course we don't. But if we don't use religion, then there exists no absolute morality. So instead of us coming together and saying "hey, it would really make sense if we don't kill one another," we have to say Moses got it from God.

By what measure is the obediance to the will of an invisible celestial Santa figure an absolute?

If the obediance to the will of an invisible celestial Santa figure is absolute, why cannot one consider that which establishes and promotes (without faith, worship, or ritual) the lives of human beings as human beings, as an absolute standard for morality?

 

[liberalogic]

By what measure is the obediance to the will of an invisible celestial Santa figure an absolute?

If the obediance to the will of an invisible celestial Santa figure is absolute, why cannot one consider that which establishes and promotes (without faith, worship, or ritual) the lives of human beings as human beings, as an absolute standard for morality?

By the way, just for the record, I'm not advocating religion as a moral standard. I think morality is common sense. Yet, human beings are fundamentally equal. What I claim to be morality is not absolute nor can it be absolute because someone else, believing in the power and autonomy of the human being, can claim morality to be something else, whether it be slightly or totally different. We can call any form of morality absolute, but it is only so insofar as the standards that we, as a society, develop.

 

[Diuretic]

I think morality comes from - as you said, common sense - but also comes from customs, the sort of customs humans developed in order to live together in tight little communities without killing each other.