Morality and the common moral decencies

Please also see our article: Is there such a thing as absolute morality?

A terrifying thought

A religious person who loses his/her faith will become a psychopath: taking drugs, drinking to excess, raping and killing without conscience or remorse.

This must be so because religious people claim that their religion is the sole source of morality - the ability to tell right from wrong.

We atheists need to be less persuasive or we will be faced with hoards of ex-religious people roaming the streets with no sense of morality.

If morality is totally dependent on religion then perhaps Voltaire was right:

Perhaps it is best to keep freethinking to ourselves and let the religious get on with keeping order with threats of hellfire and damnation.

It's "insult an atheist" time again!

The word of god is the only source of morality. The holy books of god are the only evidence of moral rules. Only the religious may judge what is right and what is wrong because only they have the hot-line to he/she/it who dictated the rules - god.

How insulting can you get? Please click here to see our response!

Those of us with no need of god or religion must, by the definition of the religious, be immoral - incapable of telling right from wrong.

The irony is that all the world's religions stole their ideas from us in the first place!

Why do we need a sense of morality - and what is it?

We need it to survive - simple as that. Humans are social animals, we live in groups which need rules to stop them falling apart.

The common moral decencies come about to enable us to lead happy lives, at ease and in harmony with our fellow men.

They also come about because of the most socially useful of all human emotions - empathy, the ability to feel what others feel. Empathy is why we cry during a good film or when we read a good novel or when we see tragic events on the news - we understand what is happening to someone else and we feel for them.

The most obvious rule that comes from empathy is the Golden Rule which is far older than any of the world's religions:

The common moral decencies that lead to a good and happy life are easy to define:

• Integrity

  We should tell the truth, keep our promises, be sincere and be honest.

• Trustworthiness

  We should be loyal to our friends, relatives, neighbours and the planetary community at large.

  We should be dependable, reliable and responsible towards others who depend on us.

• Benevolence

  We should show good will towards others and not harm or injure anyone else nor steal or destroy the property of others.

  Sexual relations should be based on mutual consent between adults.

  We should be kind, sympathetic and compassionate and do whatever we can to alleviate the pain of suffering of others.

  We should do whatever we can to increase the number of people who can enjoy a good and happy life.

• Fairness

  We should be responsible for our own actions and be willing to account for our conduct.

  We should seek justice and equality for ourselves and for others - especially those less advantaged than ourselves.

  We should never exploit others simple because we are stronger: intellectually, physically, numerically or financially; than they are.

  We should be tolerant of others, cooperate with them and seek to resolve differences through peaceful negotiation and compromise where necessary.

Is that it?

Yes, it's as simple as that.

These are ancient ideas, they can be found in the hieroglyphs of Ancient Egypt pre-dating Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the other religions of the world.

There is nothing new here - and none of it involves god, religion, holy books, priests, places of worship or indoctrinating the young.

These values are internal - we do not require a written source for them - no Torah, Bible or Qur'an.

Take a class of nine year olds, tell them that you want them to help you draw up the rules that will allow people to get on with one another. What do they come up with? The common moral decencies listed above.

If children can do it, why is it so hard for adults?