Morality

[TeslaTrooper]

You say lad so I may guess you may be from the U.K also.

That's right, I'm from good old blighty.

I can agree to an extent that some secular societies are less barbaric than religious ones.

I think a vast majority are. Morality never came from religion, it came from us, religion just stepped it and claimed it was the one that brought basic rules about.

But generally I feel that is a east vs west thing rather than religious argument.

Not entirely. The east was once very advanced and well educated, hundreds of years ago of course. Education and discipline is what produces a strong sense of morality and order.

I feel in general the west has become more civilised over time. I guess what I was thinking about was 1950s Britain, and how the form of christianity to me gave it a better sense of right and wrong than we have today. Perhaps other factors weighing into it all aswell as the religious argument.

I saw guidance within myself. Didn't need any religion or group to show me the rule book. I'm not the only one, many like me have never believed in god and turned out perfectly fine. Many theists have done some pretty awful shit, in fact they dominate our prisons.
A person having trouble being decent in society I think has nothing to do with beliefs or lack of. I think it's mainly due to bad parenting, lack of discipline and education. I was raised in a very stable family. Both my parents to keep me on the straight and narrow, they used discipline when needed and taught me an awful lot. With or without religion, there will always be those who do good and others who do bad.

I guess because christianity is the precedent in the u.k it is difficult to determine whether or moral principles would exist without that Christian history.

Christianity didn't invent morality. In many ways, it stood against it. Millions have been killed in the name of religion. People burnt at the states for lacking belief, the inquisition caused a lot of suffering, so did the witch hunt. When the black death broke out, people killed each other thinking they had been claimed by the devil.
Religion didn't invent or develop morality.

If we take the the u.k as an example again, I would say a large percentage have lost their traditional faith in religion. To me it seems that now the "chains" of religion have been removed, secular society is not living up to the promise of "freedom."

Not quite free of religious nuttery quite yet. Sweden is way ahead with that. Social disorder and the like can be the result of any number of things. As I've mentioned above. I wouldn't so quickly point the finger and secularism. Educated people don't commit violent crimes. Just as you wouldn't catch Charles Darwin robbing the bank.

I feel we are not promoting an example,

Secularism on it's own is about the seperation of religion from all civil matters in a country. What your looking for is secular-humanism. For which I support all the way.

in that we can behave properly without the restraints of religion around us.

I can and have.

This is my opinion only, but the whole premise to my original question/ramble, is how can we preserve morality in secular society, through choice rather than fear, because to me it seems like we are failing.

Parenting, discipline and education. Me thinks anyway.

Bring a third person into the equation and he may consider kissing scenes on television immoral, wheras I wouldnt.

Morality can be subjective. Some think it's immoral to smack kids, some others don't. But society as a whole tend to have a universal agreement that such things as murder, theft and the like to be absolutely disgusting.
You could just leave it as - If an action causes a negative outcome on any person or business, it is there for wrong.

What do you think?

I guess so possibly. I will have a look into secular-humanism. But with all this talk which would suggest me favouring a religious society. The state and church or mosque or whatever has to be seperate. For me it is a strong belief in seperating the two.