Behaving Badly? Stop Using Religion as an Excuse!

[SecularMotion]

While there is much joy in the world, it can also be a harsh and unforgiving place, full of disasters both natural and man-made. This is why it is so important that people try their best to follow the Golden Rule, modernly rephrased as treating others as they wish to be treated. By cultivating our empathy, and acting on it to benefit others, we may all lead better lives free from unnecessary conflict and pain. While some rely on religious belief to inform their morality, others such as humanists, derive their ethics from philosophy, scientific discovery and personal experience.

Surprisingly, many Americans don't think that morality can even exist without a commitment to an intervening god. In fact, a recent survey by the Pew Research Center showed that 53 percent of Americans felt that belief in God is essential to morality, which, although lower than the 57 percent of Americans who felt similarly when surveyed in 2007, shows that most Americans still tie morality with theistic belief.

What's curious about this perceived connection between faith and morality is the fact that so much of the behavior we see that violates basic precepts like the Golden Rule is motivated (or at least excused) by religious teachings or beliefs. I heard Nobelist Steven Weinberg say while accepting the Humanist of the Year Award, "With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." In my view, it's not so much that religion makes people do evil, it's that it provides a convenient excuse for nearly anything, and that lowers the bar for committing bad behavior we might otherwise avoid. So while religion isn't required for people to be jerks, it may perpetuate jerky behavior and make it more widespread.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/roy-speckhardt/behaving-badly-progressive-religion_b_5069730.html

[TexasProgresive]

1. I disagree

Bad people will twist whatever to rationalize what they want to do. Good people are by definition good and tend not to do evil. This is just a false assumption.

[el_bryanto]

3. It depends on what you mean by a good person

A person of very strong convictions who is a good person might well be good under any circumstances. But a weak person might be a good person if around good people and blessed with an easy life, while turning out to be a bad person when circumstances change.

Bryant

[TexasProgresive]

6. Your second example was never a good person

Just someone who goes with the flow- Someone who does not think his/her actions to their conclusion.

[el_bryanto]

7. I don't necessarily agree. I think that people will react to their environments

Part of the reason I favor progressive measures to improve lives depressed communities is that it will also help with crime in those areas.

Bryant

[Dorian Gray]

8. I think that

most people are very complex. Good and bad qualities in them. And most people battle their own natures to do good (regardless of religious faith). I do know some very selfish people, of course, but even they are capable of doing extraordinarily good things for others.

Religion might provide a framework, though it is true we've seen people use and distort readings for their own ends. (See Westboro Baptist Church.) And I think those people use God and religion for evil. But even they have moments of love and kindness.

[YoungDemCA]

15. Good post.

nt

[bobalew]

5. Reminds me of a funny bumper sticker I saw once....

" Jesus may love you, but the rest of us think you're an A$$H0le"

Some people actually justify bad behavior based on the fact that they are Xtian, forgiven, and saved, no matter how badly they treat others from a position of "Moral Superiority". Repeat: RELIGiON or FAITH is not required to be ethical & to do the right & correct thing.
We are evolved to a high enough level to ascertain for ourselves what works to create harmony in our reality & the universe, in general. We do NOT need an external Authority or its "representatives" to tell us how to figure this out. Other belief sets have proven this amply already. The need for an authority figure telling us what's right is a vestige of childhood, and some of have yet too grow up.

[rug]

2. Humans will use any excuse to rationalize what the really want to do.

[Iggo]

4. But it's a really really good excuse!

[trotsky]

9. Well, except for when the bad behavior is specifically allowed or

encouraged by one's religion or religious tradition.

Or, you'll have to flip it around and also say: Behaving well? Stop giving credit to your religion!

[el_bryanto]

10. He kind of covers that point.

In my view, it's not so much that religion makes people do evil, it's that it provides a convenient excuse for nearly anything, and that lowers the bar for committing bad behavior we might otherwise avoid. So while religion isn't required for people to be jerks, it may perpetuate jerky behavior and make it more widespread.

I think I'm a better person when I try to live according to the ideals I believe in, which largely come from my faith - but I suspect that's true of most people, no matter whether their ideals come from religion or come from great thinkers or philosophers or just from thinking about what the best way to live is.

Bryant

[trotsky]

11. Not really.

The point is just dismissed arbitrarily. I don't think that is a useful approach.

[el_bryanto]

12. Hmmmm.

I guess i can see your point in the last paragraph.

Instead of using religion to excuse the more banal prejudices that people harbor, those who believe in a god should use their faith as a motivator to be kind and do good. Fortunately, religious people are not monolithic. For every fundamentalist ready to discriminate against atheists, Jews, gays, liberals, ethnic minorities, etc., there are two religious progressives who have interpreted their faith in a more humanistic way. It's time for non-theist and faithful progressives to unite and stop giving the conservative religion a free pass for prejudice.

The statement that there are two religious progressives for every fundamentalist is hyperbole at best.

And the larger question of whether the problem is conservative religion or just religion is a potential area of disagreement.

Bryant

[okasha]

13. Hmmm.

This strikes me as good advice to non-believers, too.

[Iggo]

14. Behaving Goodly? Stop Using Religion as an Excuse!

Take your time...