Sunday 13 April 2014

Is it possible to have ethics and morals without religious belief and the notion of reward and punishment?

Being an atheist does not make someone a bad person. Just because they don't believe in god does not mean that they believe doing wrong is okay. Religion is independent of whether someone has ethics or morals. Ethics and morals depend on how one was raised. Had I been an atheist, and had my parents raised me in the same way, I would still have had the same ethics and morals. If my parents were also atheist, they would too have the same morals. Although religion can influence a persons ethics and morals, being an atheist does not give a person bad ethics and morals. There are religious people with worse ethics and morals than an atheist and vice versa. Ethics and morals depend on how a person was raised, there life experiences and cultures.

As for having the notion of reward and punishment without any religious belief, it too is possible. Reward and punishment for those who believe in religion is heaven and hell respectively. But for atheists reward and punishment can be personal or social. For example, the reward for helping others may be personal satisfaction, gratification or the happiness and thanks of others. The punishment for hurting someone could be guilt, or a widely known punishment is jail for many things. Having no religion does not mean, similar to ethics and morals, that a person has no reward and punishment. Everyone makes there own rewards and punishments, theist, pantheist or atheist.

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