Religion and Morality

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A famous philosopher once said:

"Lastly, those are not at all to be tolerated who deny the being of a God. Promises, covenants, and oaths, which are the bonds of human society, can have no hold upon an atheist."

- John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, 1689

Well, Pew Research just published an interesting short study on the public perception of religion and morality in 40 countries.

So even though most people have probably never heard of John Locke, we can now check if people agree with him:



And for those not familiar with statistics: A correlation of -0.76 means that approx. 58 percent of the attitude towards religion and morality can be statistically explained by GDP per capita (or vice versa). Please bear in mind that correlation alone does not imply causation.

It is interesting to see that the two most powerful countries in the world, the US and China, are both outliers. Chinese citizens place significantly less emphasis on religion as a prerequisite for morality than one would expect due to the country's GDP. The reverse is true for the United States.

Summary: http://www.pewglobal.org/2014/03/13/wor ... -morality/
Full report: http://www.pewglobal.org/files/2014/03/ ... 3-2014.pdf
Methodology: http://www.pewglobal.org/2014/03/13/wor ... ey-methods

Please discuss.

How did this survey take moral relativism into account? I'm sure moral codes are far stricter in Egypt than they are in Canada. And I wonder how a chart comparing the role of government and the promotion of moral attitudes would look.

Interesting, my adopted country France has the least linkage between belief in a god and morality. The French are well known for their free thinkers though and there is a very strong distinction between state and religion unlike America and other western nations. I'd guess this probably goes back to the French revolution and not only the beheading of the nobles who ruled leaving the citizens in poverty but also against the fat-cat priests who abused their position of authority and lived off the fat of the land while their parishioners sometimes starved.

Personally I'm of the opinion that morality and religion are entirely different. It is merely that religion has claimed morality for itself and in so doing has poisoned it with things like hatred for homosexuals.

It did not. The following question was asked in all countries:

"Which one of these comes closest to your opinion?

Number 1 – It is not necessary to believe in God in order to be moral and have good values

OR

Number 2 – It is necessary to believe in God in order to be moral and have good values"


I have no international data on this, but Pew investigated this exact question in the US back in 2008:



Source: http://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/compa ... rality.pdf

Canada wisely imitates Europe again. And I fail to see how anyone with any experience in the real world, or interest in history or current events, would find believers morally superior. I know it's too much to ask that they actually read the bible.

Given the countries involved, one would actually need to read not only the Bible (The Tanakh + The New Testament), but also (not exclusive):

- The Qur'an
- The Hadith
- The Talmud
- The Vedas
- The Bhagavad Gita
- The Buddhavacana
- The Wúménguān
- The Guru Granth Sahib

That is a fact, but morality and good values must still come from somewhere and mankind has yet to produce them on its own.

It is incumbent upon parents to provide a healthy template for children to observe and emulate. Children who lack a cohesive home environment will learn values either through religious means, from the media, or from a unionized state employee. Parents are the best option IMO. And I feel that the countries with a close to even split on the chart would have the citizens who enjoy the most freedom, although I have no empirical evidence to back that.

Nonsense. Humans have an innate sense of empathy and that is the basis of natural morality. It is an evolutionary trait to help cooperation amongst members of a family and to a lesser extent towards their own tribe. Even other species of ape have a basic sense of moral behaviour:

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/19/health/chimpanzee-fairness-morality/

http://www.livescience.com/24802-animals-have-morals-book.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_morality

This question always gives the mistaken impression that non believers are immoral and the believers are the only ones with morals.

But the opposite is true. It shows that some of us are naturally inclined to moral behavior whereas others (many it seems) need the threat of god to be moral. Life must be tough for those people, constantly worrying about whether their god will approve of their behavior.

Even if religion is going out of vogue in the west, the fact remains, religion has still left it's cultural imprint out of which morality is derived.

Morality is not derived from religion. It is agreed amongst groups and society as a whole by means of laws and public opinion. Religions are used to promote those values, but ultimately they come from something more deep rooted than religion.

Even sub-human primate species seem to have an impulse of rectitude in their behavior. I suspect morality is hard wired into us genetically.

ruveyn

I suddenly just got an impulse to start howling at the moon.

I can't think why.

http://www.iep.utm.edu/bentham/
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mill/
http://www.iep.utm.edu/virtue/

On topic, I imagine China's history of Confucianism - relatively secular compared to Christian DCT - is a contributing factor.

That, and successive governments clamping down on freedom of religion.