By Garrett Fogerlie The thought that morality comes from religion is so very wrong. I am often confronted with someone that says, “Well if you don’t believe in Heaven and Hell, what’s to stop you from killing people?” This is an outrageous question! I sincerely hope that it is asked out of ignorance however every time I hear it I can’t help to wonder how little concern the person who asks it has for life. The thought that people are only good because they are afraid of burning in Hell for eternity is an incredibly scary thought! If
we look at the animal kingdom, we see animals risking their lives to
help other animals, elephants risk getting stuck while trying to get
others out of mud pits. Wolves, lions and other animals sharing food
with members of their pack so they don’t starve. Mothers sacrificing
themselves when predators attack so that their offspring can have a
chance to get away; these things are noble and they are hard coded in
these animals and in us. It’s rare to see animals killing other animals
when it’s not for food, security or mating. The idea that human beings
are less moral then far less intelligent animals is preposterous. And
then to go further the thought that if you don’t think you will be
caught or punished, then why not start murdering is inconceivable. Even
the bad apples that do end up being serial killers, it is usually
associated with a disease or/and a very traumatic childhood.  None the less I hear this
question all the time. My number one rebuttal to this is that Atheists
make up around 18% of the American population, while they only make up
0.2% of the prison population. There are less Atheists in prison than
Scientologists. With any other religion (except possibly the Amish)
their ratio between population and prison population is pretty much a
dead match. That means that the percentage of Catholics is around 36%
and the percentage of Catholics in prison is also around 36%, as you
would think. I have heard many tries to
refute these stats but survey after survey confirms them. However I will
point out the more common ones. A standard one I hear is that the
actual Atheist population in America is not nearly 18% saying that it is
less and at the same time they say that people don’t want to admit to
being Atheists so they aren’t telling the truth. These two points
contradict each other; it would be like taking two different temperature
readings with the same thermometer and then saying the outside readings
seem too high, so it must be the thermometer and I’ll just lower those
readings manually while on the inside it is too low so I will raise
them. It’s poor logic and there have been many studies that have all
showed consistent results. The other idea I have come across, by a
pastor no less, was that Atheists tend be more intelligent and more
educated and this keeps them out of trouble. Perhaps this adds to it,
but I’m sure prison has as similar ratio of people with above average
intelligence as the standard population does. But this idea, actually
this fact, that people that are more intelligent and better educated are
more likely to be atheist has to make you think that maybe they are on
to something. We listen to scientists and doctors about tons of
important things; things that we may barley understand but we know that
since these people are more likely to know what they are talking about
then we should listen to them this applies to everything except
religion! Why? How can people be so ass backwards about this one thing? To be honest though the stats
amazed me when I first saw them, however since I know a lot of religious
people I see that the majority of them have little reverence for human
life, amongst other things. It’s similar to several police officers I
know that openly talk about wanting to kill drug users. I suppose if you
though that after you die you get another life, like it’s a video game,
you tend to be less careful with the one you have now. Not to diverge
here too much, but just in the possibility that there is no life or
world after this one, shouldn’t we do all we can to make this one
wonderful for us and our children? The worst case scenario in this idea
is that we work a bit harder and life is a bit better, and if by chance
there is another life then even better no harm was done. We should hope
for the best but plan for the worse. Doing good deeds because you
fear the consequences is not moral! Doing good for goodness sake is and
it has absolutely nothing to do with the bible. Do not belittle yourself
by thinking that you would be a crazy evil person if you didn’t have
religion. You are better than that. As Steven Weinberg says,
This is a very good point. The
extremist Muslim terrorists that have been responsible for so many
deaths as of late probably would have gone their whole lives without
killing anyone, without blowing up buildings and causing devastation all
around the world. Without religion there would have been far less wars
and far less death. But not even that extreme, without religion, stem
cell research could be much further along; the Dark Ages would have been
very different. There may not be a prevalence of Gay hate, and
picketing funerals and bombing doctors. This is why I believe that God
is mans biggest mistake, not the other way around. If there actually is a
god, the devastation that he has caused by his random fiddling with
peoples lives and civilizations shows that he at the least is not all
knowing and more likely he is not a good or amazing god, and does not
seem to care at all for the suffering that he has cursed onto this
world! Comments...
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