Does religion corrupt morality?

[Pyrrho]

Here is something relevant to this thread that was posted in another thread:

Bold emphasis is added:

Religion isn't about facts. It's about dispensing altogether with the logical part of your brain, at least while thinking about this subject.

The whole thing is already entirely unsupported nonsense. It's particularly bad regarding Jesus because without the later added forged extra ending, even the original account of Jesus did not demonstrate he had ressurected. It ends with some guy spreading a rumour that he has resurrected. Yes, I'm serious. If you're prepared to take the word of a probably fictional character, even within the context of a story written entirely on hearsay, you have taken leave of your senses.

So really, the only thing that is going to deconvert people is them making a choice to properly evaluate their beliefs. This could be in terms of how well they are supported by evidence, or by looking at the huge moral issues involved with the kind of character they are worshipping, and the way it promotes bypassing your own morality.

Exactly.  If someone will not properly evaluate their beliefs, then they will be apt to believe all sorts of nonsense.  This is also why religion is corrosive of morals, as an unwillingness to subject ideas to proper scrutiny leads to nonsense in morality just like it does in ordinary matters of fact.

[downbeatplumb]

Can religion corrupt morality?
Yes.
Does it always?
No.

It depends on how seriously you take it. If live by all the bible laws you will be put in prison or a mental health unit.
If you live by all Islamic laws you end up living in a hell on earth like ISIS.

[Pyrrho]

Bold emphasis is added:

Can religion corrupt morality?
Yes.
Does it always?
No.

It depends on how seriously you take it. If live by all the bible laws you will be put in prison or a mental health unit.
If you live by all Islamic laws you end up living in a hell on earth like ISIS.

Do you mean by that, that whether someone's morality is corrupted by religion depends on whether the person really believes their professed religion or not?

Someone might profess to be religious, due to social pressures (such as to please a family member, or to avoid execution if one lives in Saudi Arabia, etc.), without believing religion at all.  In such a case, since the person is not actually religious, their morality is not corrupted by their religion (since they really have no religion).  But that is not a counterexample to the idea that religion corrupts morality, since the person is not really religious.

Your position appears to be that the more religious someone is, the more their morality will be corrupted by it.  Is that what you mean to be saying?  If not, what do you mean?

[drfuzzy]

Well, I think that the more religious a person is, the more that they will allow the "group think" of their sect to completely control their thinking and actions.  This is probably even more true for those indoctrinated as children.  (Thinking of Westboro.)  

I remember, in the early 60's, watching a church group of people (that were, in their normal workday lives, very intelligent, calm, pleasant people) burn down a neighbor's house.  Why?  The owner of that house (a white woman) had just married a black man.  It seems to me now that they used the entire situation as a scapegoat.  I still have nightmares of the rage on the faces, the screaming crowd, the torches - it was a very cathartic experience for the group.  My parents were kind of shell-shocked for days afterward.

No one was ever charged with any crime related to the house burning.

[Napoléon]

[downbeatplumb]

Bold emphasis is added:

Can religion corrupt morality?
Yes.
Does it always?
No.

It depends on how seriously you take it. If live by all the bible laws you will be put in prison or a mental health unit.
If you live by all Islamic laws you end up living in a hell on earth like ISIS.

Do you mean by that, that whether someone's morality is corrupted by religion depends on whether the person really believes their professed religion or not?

Someone might profess to be religious, due to social pressures (such as to please a family member, or to avoid execution if one lives in Saudi Arabia, etc.), without believing religion at all.  In such a case, since the person is not actually religious, their morality is not corrupted by their religion (since they really have no religion).  But that is not a counterexample to the idea that religion corrupts morality, since the person is not really religious.

Your position appears to be that the more religious someone is, the more their morality will be corrupted by it.  Is that what you mean to be saying?  If not, what do you mean?

People can believe strongly without knowing the details of what their religion actually says, they only listen to the edited highlights dished out in the place they worship. It's the one who take it home and study it and then find out they shouldn't do this and they should oppress that are the problem. It's not about strength of belief as much as is its about depth of knowledge and acceptance of that knowledge of what the texts actually say.

[robvalue]

I've noticed that it hardly matters what the religious texts say, all that matters is what people think they say. The two are increasingly not the same.

[downbeatplumb]

I've noticed that it hardly matters what the religious texts say, all that matters is what people think they say. The two are increasingly not the same.

Indeed.

[dyresand]

I don't think religion, in and of itself "corrupts" a person's morality.

Modern day christian terrorists organizations


1. The Army of god
2. Eastern Lightning 
3. The Lords resistances (or LRaA)
4. The national Liberation Front of Tripura
5. The Phineas Priesthood 
6. The Concerned Christians
7. The KKK (Yes by definition they are a terrorist organization they cannot fuck up or do anything or you know
the national guard state police and everyone in general comes out the wood work and fucks them up.) 

Look at the jail statistics overall most people in jail believe in some form of god and have some form of religion. 
If you want to take a detailed look into why religion corrupts morality i'll give you a good starting place. 

http://www.salon.com/2013/08/03/the_10_w...m_partner/

[Lemonvariable72]

Pyrrho, do you think I'm a bad person?

Of course you aren't, most Christians are decent people, that is the scary part. The reason religion make people less moral is because it replaces reasoned responses with "God said so". For example in the case of gay marriage, most atheists come to the reasoned conclusion that what two consenting adults do in the bedroom is no ones business and that to deny them marriage is unfair. The argument we have been dealing with from the side that wants to keep it illegal is " God said homosexulity is wrong" and when ask why its wrong, well just look at this forum as morality has done to death here.