Essay On Secular Religion

The Question of Moral outside Religion

We come into the world completely unaware of our surroundings and of the rules that govern our community. As we grow up our parents shape our personalities. They teach us very basic skills such as talking and walking as well as more complex things about life in society. Normally, the first things we learn about morality are independent from religion. Our parents intend us to be well-adjusted children, and later on adults, that will fit into the community and respect its rules. That is because they have understood that to be accepted in the community we need to behave according to the ethical code of the community. If then the community and our parents have a religion and believe in the existence of one or more gods, we learn about the morality of that religion and about God’s will.

As we grow up, the community demands that we follow secular moral in order to be accepted. These secular morals include respecting and not stealing from our neighbors, not lying, and not committing murder; and they form the moral commandments of the law of God. These morals could easily be ignored if we did not have any reasoning; however, our reason tells us that it is necessary to follow these morals for the well-being of the community and for our own well-being. Therefore, I would follow the Ten Commandments, from the fifth on in the Bible, if I knew God did not exist because of the secular morals I learned to respect, because the

community demands that I follow a moral code and because to assume that I would not follow them is to assume that I have no reasoning at all.

The values that are passed down to us, whether they are family or community values, affect our lives greatly. An atheistic family, for examp...

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...use to recognize the community’s morality, we become estranged from the communal life and our rights to fully enjoy the benefits of life in community are restricted. In addition, I can think critically and use reason in making my choices, which allows me to make the best decision regarding my well-being and the well-being of my community. My reasoning ability also makes it possible for me to understand that sometimes I must give up on things that would make me happy in favor of the well-being of the community because interfering with the community’s arrangement can cause problems for me in there future. Hence, following the five moral commandments is possible even when I know that God does not exist because we learn and reasonably apply secular morals and there are outside forces, e.g.: the community, that demand that we follow a moral code regardless of our beliefs.