This one deviates from my usual philosophical rants, but not without reason. I now give you a meditation on why religious convictions are immoral. A reflection resulting from queries I face when the topic of belief arises.
I will add that this very meditation is one that earns me the moniker of the Devil. One amongst many, of course, but always a cause for contention.
When questioned about my lack of belief in gods and demons, I am often asked how I know right from wrong. The inquiry is a clear challenge of my worldview as a preclusion to my ability to lead a moral life.
The argument is that god must have dictated the noblest codes of conduct. More specifically, to Christians, the god of the Bible (yes, I purposely write such names with lowercase initials, albeit grammatically incorrect), who provided humanity with the perfect moral law in his omniscience.
Whenever I encounter the proposition that humans cannot be moral without Yahweh and his commandments, I wearily attempt to discuss my limited understanding of how evolutionary processes coded morality into our genetic expressions of behaviour. And, despite my best efforts, fail to move some people in my direction. But I win the majority of exchanges; it’s a superpower.
I admit that I have to improve this part of my discourse.
Lately, instead of sharing evolution with my opposition, I have taken on the challenge of presenting another point of contention, one holding that religious convictions are perfectly immoral when humans observe them for fear of damnation in the hereafter.
Good, moral people do good things because they know it to be correct, not for the expectation of recompense. You should respect people because it is the proper course of action, and it feels nice. And if it doesn’t feel nice, you should be doing more to help yourself than reading my blog.
I’ll leave you with this: the good person isn’t the one who cannot do evil, but the one who can but chooses not to. Those who respect your well-being because their god tells them to will betray it for the same reason.
