Morality

"One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion." ― Arthur C. Clarke

If you could stop someone from raping a child, would you? If you answered yes, you’re more moral than your god. Often we see ‘morality’ being associated with religion because it’s said that one cannot be moral without religion. This statement is completely absurd and has no grounds whatsoever.

If religious faith improved morality, priests wouldn’t rape kids, suicide bombers wouldn’t exist, huge amounts of food and money would be donated to the poor instead of god, particular clothing accessory etc wouldn’t be mandatory to exercise love, help and kindness, also, women would have equality.

Now, many believers would say that all the above mentioned things are not a result of religion but the human mind itself. To which I would like to say that the people who do all these things are deeply religious, they follow their religion wholeheartedly, word to word, and they know their religious scriptures more and better than you. So, if religion does improve morality and all these people are so deeply religious, why aren’t they moral? The answer is because religion does not improve morality. Religion tells you to do things irrespective of what’s right and wrong. Whereas morality means doing the right thing, irrespective of what you’re told to do.

If you take a look at the past or history of every religion and how they came into existence, how they were established, how they were spread worldwide, you'll see that every single one of them includes war, bloodshed, rape, murder,etc, you name it and it's there. A religion is a way of life, and a way of life that has all these atrocities deep in it's roots can not teach or improve morality.

Again, some might say that at that time it was the need of the hour, wars had to be fought for religion, children had to be killed, women had to be raped. To all these people I would like to ask, how do you react when you see someone dead on the road due to an accident? Do you say it's ok? Or do you feel sorry for them deeply? If you get so much hurt by the death of someone you don't even know in a road accident, how can you agree with all the above mentioned atrocities just because they were committed for religious benefits.

Let it be very clear that if you can't determine right from wrong, you lack empathy, not religion.

A small activity for you:

Find one good or noble thing which cannot be accomplished without religion. Also, name an action or deed that could only be mandated by faith.

I believe if you can find the answer to both, you’ll yourself realize whether you get your morals from religion or not.