Quote:
Originally posted by Darkman:
However, on an individual basis, and from my experience, people who do not practice religion (even though religion is still all around us...) are not any less moral than those that do. Which is what I was trying to talk about. If you for example had never been religious, would you still be a moral person?
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No matter whether the person practices a religion or not, they are the product of the society they were born into. Even if they reject and react against the said society, it has influenced the persons development.
It takes a village to raise a child.
We are not born with behavioural instincts like animals are. Everything is taught us. Some would argue that the human conscience is inherant, but I'd be thinking you'd need to believe in a creator to believe that. Does a cat get a conscience about killing a bird?
Anyhow back to the society bit....
Religions present an idea of perfection and an idea of sin or imperfection. Yet no human fits the ideal and perfect mould. Why would we have a concept of humans being anything other than what we are? When humans are at their depraved worse, we are no different from animals. That is what we insultingly call a person who commits violent sexual crime for example. An animal.
Yet animals are being just as they were made. Predatory. Concerned with survival, procreation at given times, and meeting basic needs. Guinea Pig males violently attack their sons because their sons are competition for mating. (Guinea pig Oedipus??)
We have this idea of humanity being more than that. How did this idea develop? Every primitive society had some sort of religion, so finding an explaination outside religion is difficult because to my knowledge a religion free culture has not been found.
Your Texan friends - though not practicing a religion - are still the product of a Judeo-Christian society, and, though rejecting key elements are keeping some behavioural codes from those religious worldviews.