Mysteries From On High

If human morality flows from religion (God on high) and then trickles on down to depravity's lowest gutters, why are there vast number of religions with widely differing moralities? One truth dispensing God, one truth dispensed, but results may vary...

Door 1
Human implementation of God's Will is prone to failure and/or miscommunication.

Door 2
God speaks to man according to his understanding, meaning the idiom must accord to local concepts.

Door 3
Gods all have their pet ideas about how we humans should live. (This is the most fun choice.)

Door 4
Religion is a human-generated morality crystallized into ritual. Meaning moral notions of a particular time and place are handed over to mystical truth seekers/makers who give them back to the masses as God's own Truth.

It's pretty obvious I'm betting on door #4 in my non-exhaustive list.


Godless Slackers

"What I can't understand are those who are not religious and seem to have some sense of morality. To me it all appears a sham and they are boxed in by their upbringing or society. In short, the only reason I see that atheists don't rape and murder is due to the weakness of their character."

-Stephen Urich (The missing character in Demons)

What always bothers me in Dostoevsky is the lack of feeling in his atheists. If lack of belief in God equaled lack of emotion, then, by all means, an atheist ought to murder, rape, and create mayhem whenever he likes. Fortunately, this condition only applies to psychopaths and another atheist threat is foiled. Truth is, the religious and non-religious alike are wooed into crime, but these are breakdowns of normal human morals, and they apply whether the actor believes God's out there to punish him or not. I know my native sense of decency doesn't allow me to do things that are immoral.


Larry Says

If you haven't already, you should check out Lawrence Kohlberg. He might not be right, but it makes a lot of sense.