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Religion

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Religion:

Can one be Moral and not believe in God

Tomeka Lynch

PHI208 Jeffrey Porter

7/7/13

Abstract

“A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hopes of reward after death ” (Albert Einstein)
Religion is about beliefs and individual views that relate to what they believe is ethical/unethical, none of those state you are less moral if you are not religious, however I can understand how confusing this could be based on the teachings of the bible and some of the plagues and deaths that was brought about by Jesus/God. I personally like the quote from Einstein.

From the time that man could think, the question has been asked “where do we come from”, “how did we get here”, and “is there a God”? The question of the existence of God has been a long time debate between believers and non-believers. There are only two logical answers to the question of Gods’ existence, either God does exist or God does not exist. This paper will explore the arguments for and against the existence of God as well as explain some of the arguments that are used to come to these conclusions.
Theodicy arose from the attempts to answer the question of the existence of God. St. Anselm formed the first ontological argument and believed that -Ontological arguments are arguments, based on conclusions that God exist. St. Anselm thinks that God's existence is the concept of being than which no greater can be conceived. St. Anselm reasoned that, if such a being fails to exist, then a greater being—namely, a being than which no greater can be conceived, and which exists can be conceived. (Oppy, Graham Winter 2012) Of course that cannot be the case as nothing is greater than a being which no greater can be conceived.
There is Descartes who said that the existence of a benevolent God was logically necessary for the evidence of the senses to be meaningful and Immanuel Kant, who argued that the existence of God can be deduced from the existence of good. There is a human need for the knowledge that there is something else after life, life after death can neither be proved nor disproved but there really is not proof that after death there is life. I believe we hang to this because there is no one that can actually provide facts that it does not exist, which non-believers tend to hang there hat on.
If there is a God then why does he allow evil? God would then make everyone the same so that personalities did not exist and everyone would follow his orders, however he has allowed choses to be made by individuals and with that poor decisions can be made which affects the argument of free will. There is the "historical induction" argument which concludes that since most theistic religions throughout history argue for the existence of God - (the nearest analogy to the existence of God in physics are the ideas of quantum mechanics which are seemingly paradoxical but make sense of a great deal of disparate data.)
To speak briefly on Religion, Fideists acknowledge that belief in the existence of God may not be amenable to demonstration or refutation, but rests on faith alone. The Catholic Church maintains that knowledge of the existence of God is available in the "natural light of human reason" alone. St Thomas Aquinas believes that proof of Gods existence can be done in 5 different ways. The first way: Argument from Motion, meaning nothing can move itself so therefore there has to be a God, the second way: Argument from efficient causes meaning nothing exists prior to itself, therefore nothing is the efficient cause of itself proving there is a God, the third way: Argument from Possibility and Necessity (Reduction argument) meaning there are items in nature things that are possible to be or not too be which means there had to be an existence when there was nothing, the fourth way: Argument from Gradation of Being meaning some are better or worse than others, therefore there must also be something which is to all beings the cause of their being, goodness, and every other perfection, and the fifth way: Argument from Design meaning most things lack knowledge, therefore some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed
Arguments that come from the bible contain no contradictions and contain a perfect morality, and no ethical defects. These arguments propose that God’s existence is self-evident.
No person’s mortality cannot be judged based on a nonbelief. Morals are different than beliefs. The Definition of MORAL in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary shows us that morals are “of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behavior: ethical <moral judgments>.” (Merriam-Webster2013). An opinion is formed in a person’s mind based off of ideas and things that are seeded in their mind throughout childhood. These ideas are planted by parents, relatives, teachers, friends, etc. As a person matures into an adult these ideas are groomed and formed into opinion of that person’s personality. A final judgment of opinion on certain topics and issues arise, which form specific values that are formed and followed by this person. Morality is a reflection of one’s personal values.
Webster’s definition of BELIEF is to have “a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing” (Merriam-Webster 2013) A person whom does not believe in God does have a belief in value. They value their own personal opinion. If one says that they do not believe in God, this does not mean that they do not have any beliefs. The person may hold some type of acceptance in their mind to some other belief or tradition. Believing in something different than a counterpart does not make the idea incorrect or unacceptable; it may just cause a difference of opinion. There are various motives or causes that can affect the way a person may think towards a particular subject, issue or topic. “Some say that reason alone provides what is necessary for belief. If you cannot see it or touch it, it should not be believed, for the only truths worthy of belief are those that the senses can test or examine. “(Hindson and Cancer 2008). “For theists, God is the ultimate moral standard. There cannot be an ultimate moral law without an Ultimate Moral Law Giver.” (Hindson and Cancer 2008). An article by an atheist LEE DYE asked the question “Are we moral because we believe in God, or do we believe in God because we are moral?” He responded by quoting “Frans de Waal who argues in his latest book that the answer is clearly the latter. The seeds for moral behavior preceded the emergence of our species by millions of years, and the need to codify that behavior so that all would have a clear blueprint for morality led to the creation of religion, he argues.
Most religious leaders would argue it's the other way around: Our sense of what's moral came from God, and without God there would be no morality. Frans de Waal disparages the efforts of other atheists to convince the public to abandon all beliefs in the supernatural. Religion serves its purpose, he argues, especially through the rituals and bodies of beliefs that help strengthen community bonds.” (DYE 2013).
Humans are born with an innate ability to decipher between what is right and what is wrong. “If God does not exist, says Dostoyevsky's Ivan Karamazov, "everything is permitted Which is one way of saying that notions of good and evil lose their force when people cease to acknowledge God” (John Frame 1996). To be able to be moral, argues Hare, we need "moral faith: . . . the faith that it is possible for us to be morally good in our hearts and the faith that the world outside us makes moral sense."( Volf, Miroslav 2003).
The existence of "god" also opens up the door to the problem of infinite regression. After all, if "god" created everything, what or who created "god"? And so it goes, ad infinitum. In this day, it is no longer adequate to simply assert that people and societies require "god" to be moral. (Steve Beler 2012)
In conclusion if man created God then the only logical answer to the question of his existence is that he does in fact exist and if that is the case then we should acknowledge him. If man has created God than he is simply a figment of the imagination of his creators. The answer would be true as to answer false would once again be a non-answer. If you believe in God your answer would be true, if you don’t believe in God your answer would still be true, because even if you don’t believe there is a God some do and because of this he does exist. It is just a question of in what capacity does he exist for each individual. The only way that God will cease to exist is when man no longer thinks that there is a God and the very thought of him is wiped clean from memory. In all I believe that the existence of God or even the non-existence of God has no effect on morality.

References:
Beler, S. (2012, Nov 09). No god required for morals. The Ottawa Citizen. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1150987296?accountid=32521 http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ontological-arguments/ Sinnott-armstrong, W. (2000). From 'is' to 'ought' in moral epistemology. Argumentation, 14(2), 159-174. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1007861512274
Frame, J. M. (1996, Spring). Do we need god to be moral?: Without a supreme being everything is permitted. Free Inquiry, 16, 4. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/230092426?accountid=32521
Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. An Encyclopedia Britannica Company. 2013. http://www.merriam-webster.com/ (accessed 07 07, 2013).
DYE, LEE. "Do We Need God to be Moral?" ABC News . 04 07, 2013. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/god-moral/story?id=18898993#.UdokJ6vnbIU (accessed 07 07, 2013).
Hindson, Ed, and Ergun Cancer . The Popular Encyclopedia of Apologetics . Eugene: Harvest House , 2008.

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