What is the point of morality if you're a theist?

[Drich]

I'm sure we atheists have all heard it before: "What's the point of being good if there's no god?" And we all understand just how silly that is, along with all the attendant claims of moral relativism and secret belief in god and so on.

You can not dismiss 'moral relativism' for just about every atroceity man has committed against man was based on moral relitivism. Mao, Hitler, Himiler, Stalin, Jackson, and those who followed (The presidents to instituted and maintain manifest destiny, which saw the whole sale slaughter of plains Indians to cash in on our 'God given right' to own and exploit all of the land between the altantic and pacific oceans.) All of these acts were based in a 'morality' apart and seperate from the righteousness God outlined in scripture.

But the more I think about it, the less that question makes sense, and the more it says about the theist that's asking it. The standard answer to this idea that morality becomes meaningless without a god dictating it is that the person barely held back from immorality by their almighty creator is far more immoral than the person capable of being good without the threat of hell.

I do not disagree here, but the greater issue your over looking is the fact that if you base your 'morality' on soceity, then any form of debauchery is possiable. All one needs is the blessing of his peers then people can line up and pay to have their unwanted children killed. The only thing our soceity requires is that you do not call them children, you must use the name fetus. Otherwise your good.

That's a fine answer, but really, the question doesn't need one: it can be asked back to the theist quite comfortably.

What purpose does the theist think morality serves, if they're asking this?

Absolutely none unless one is trying to justify his 'goodness' apart from the standard of God.

Leaving aside the question of whether or not god made it or not, is there really not a reason for it that the theist can envision? Is it their view that god just created a set of random moral laws for no reason and applied them to humanity, or is there an actual, practical reason for these things?

Everything God has commanded has placed man on a path to get us to where we are now, and to where we will be by the end of the book of revelation.

So, theists, help me out: is there a reason, in the physical world, why your god proposed commandments like "thou shalt not kill," or was he just doing it for funsies?

The Command is you shall not murder. The difference is there is no intrinisic value in taking a human life in of itself. It is the reason and lack of authority that makes killing murder. For instance Goverments have the right to take life, and deligate this right to certain people acting with in the goverment to carry out it's will. If you shall not kill was the Command then any killing of any kind would be a sin.

If you can think of a practical answer, that's the answer to the "good without god" question too.

We have been given the command you shall not murder because organized soceity would not be possiable if one could freely kill another when ever there was a conflict.