godless morality
An interesting article in the paper by Pamela Bone says:
It is not enough to say an act is wrong because God forbids it, unless the wrongness can also be justified on moral grounds.
To people who don’t believe in God, quoting the Bible is as useful as talking to a brick wall. Close to a third of Australians don’t accept that God exists. If formal religious observance is any guide, it is likely that far more do not believe strongly that God exists.
Most people simply do not live by what the Bible, or the Koran or any other religious text says. (If we did we would all, instead of just an extremist few, be out killing infidels or taking virgins for ourselves.)
I disagree with her conclusion that the fact that few people attend church means that they don’t “strongly” believe in the existence of God. But I thought her comments generally about the role that formal religion has in speaking to the issues of society was very interesting.
To the (still sizeable) minority who do hold strong religious beliefs, I again quote Bishop Holloway: “Our attempt to live morally as though there were no God might be the final test of faith.”
This is a real challenge for me and an interesting discernment of what we believe. If you were to find out at the end of your life that there were no God, would you still be happy about the way that you have lived?
July 28th, 2003 at 10:19 am
If at the end of my life I found out there is no God, what have I lost in believing there is and living my life accordingly?
(I don’t just mean ‘fire’ insurance:^)
July 28th, 2003 at 11:35 am
Bene, if there is no God and there is just nothingness then you wont find out, after all there will be nothing left of you to find out.
On a more serious note, morality/ethical behaviour are separate from a belief in god. Many people who do not believe in God still have strong morals and behave ethically, just as some who believe in God do the reverse.
The religiously inclined may choose to contextualise their behaviour thus but this could be argued to be a structural convenience. Perhaps it makes it easier to say that this is the way we should behave because we are told to rather than fore more abstract reasons.
July 28th, 2003 at 2:50 pm
“Our attempt to live morally as though there were no God might be the final test of faith.”
This reminds me of a line from C.S Lewis’ “Screwtape Letters” when it is said there is nothing more horrifiying to the demons than to see a Christian continue to pray even when all trace of God seems to have left the universe….
October 19th, 2004 at 1:47 pm
If at the end of it all, I was to find out that there was indeed no God, and perchance I was somehow able to know this, I will have lost nothing.
I choose today what my life will be. If my choice is wrong, I make another one to fix it.
All i would have missed out on are possibly the accolades for the good my life has (hopefully) produced.
January 13th, 2006 at 8:40 am
There was a program by Richard Dawkins a few days ago. I would just like to quote (to the best of my memory) what one of the people he interviewed commented, when told that Dawkins was an Athiest:
“I hate athiests! they fornicate on the streets!”
I would just like to say that for any one who shares this view I would like to point out that perhaps those who do not appear to make choices regarding their lifestyles are perhaps those who do not know or care about the answer to God’s existence.