(July 15, 2015 at 7:49 pm)Redbeard The Pink Wrote: Morality doesn't come from religion. It comes from the evolved human tendencies toward cooperation, empathy, and the avoidance of suffering. An individual's morality comes from a combination of personal world view and social influences. Those who think it's from religion simply do not understand this process.
In short, what stops me from raping and killing is the fact that I don't want those things done to me, therefore it stands to reason that I shouldn't do them to other people. I wouldn't want to, for that matter, because inflicting that kind of suffering is reprehensible to me.
Wow, I was asked exactly the OP's question last night and came up with the exact same response. Religions think they can prove their value by claiming that they're the only ones which develop a sense of morality, but it's an incredibly easy argument to refute when you believe in evolution. If it were true, all atheists would be running around killing each other because we have no morality, what with being godless and all. I find my morality superior to the religious individual's, because I uphold right and wrong because I want to and feel it's inherently necessary. A religious person upholds right and wrong because they're afraid if they don't, they're going to hell. What kind of morality is that?
