Why Be Moral?
April 4th, 2008
by Daren J
Theists frequently ask me, “why be a moral person if there is no punishment in the afterlife?” Well, there are lots of reasons. 1) I will not be as successful in life if others cannot trust me, and if all I ever do is look after myself, then people will not trust me. This applies to lying, stealing, and harming others generally. 2) I do not believe that I can be “absolved” of my wrongdoing through either a shaman’s magic (confession) nor through the ritual drinking of human/god blood (communion). That means I need to try and be as good and kind as possible every time I act because there are no do-overs.
I am troubled by the implication from some theists; they imply that if they stopped believing in a god, then they would become some kind of immoral and egocentric criminal. It is not the threat of eternal punishment that motivates me to do good deeds, it is for the mutual benefit of us all.
I find the latter to be a more positive outlook, for sure.
April 7th, 2008 at 4:28 am
[…] Why be Moral? Posted April 6, 2008 Why be moral if there is no punishment in the afterlife? Daren Jaques, of Just Atheists, answers the question like this: Well, there are lots of reasons. 1) I will not be as successful in life if others cannot trust me, and if all I ever do is look after myself, then people will not trust me. This applies to lying, stealing, and harming others generally. 2) I do not believe that I can be “absolved” of my wrongdoing through either a shaman’s magic (confession) nor through the ritual drinking of human/god blood (communion). That means I need to try and be as good and kind as possible every time I act because there are no do-overs. (source) […]
April 7th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
I’ve responded to this gentleman on his blog. Feel free to check out my comments.
May 27th, 2008 at 3:15 am
One way to think about this.
Morality exists, we know what it is, we can define it, almost everyone would acknowledge that, even if the exact definition would vary.
God and the Afterlife might or might not exist depending upon whom might be considering the question.
For me that says that morality is more certain than God and the Afterlife and is not only not dependant upon the latter but any relation is convenient
June 19th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Nice, Robert! I really like the way you worded that. Can I steal that from you?