Moral Animals

My sister posted a link today to this study, which I've seen bouncing around some of my favorite blogs (can't remember specific ones right now).  Kate relates it to her friendships, and wonders if some of her friends secretly have a problem with her atheism--and it worries her.

But I've been thinking about it a lot too, in an entirely different way.  Morality, it seems, is something you can only acquire through a belief in God.  Or so the majority of Americans think.  But why then, would I do the right thing, ever?  If right or wrong is contained solely in God and Jesus, and those teachings, than I clearly cannot have any sort of way to tell right from wrong.  So why am I not running around cheating?  Or lying and stealing?  I feel like I have a sense of morality, and that I know what is right and wrong.  It could be my parents' influence, or society.  It could be that I've picked up some moral code from the books I read.  But who cares where it came from?  What I'm concerned about is WHY I do good things, WHY I choose to do the right thing when the situation calls for me to make that decision.

I can't remember where I read this, but somewhere, I read a synopsis of this idea:  If you are an atheist, what is propelling you to do good things?  It's not God, it's not a fear of hell, or the desire to get into heaven.  You do good things because you genuinely want to do good things.  I'm not sure if the person who wrote this was saying that it's a more pure reason for doing good things than because you HAVE to, but there it is.  I'm not jockeying for a place in heaven, nothing is compelling me except the vague desire to be good.

At the same time, I'm not sure I really believe in altruism.  It's a concept I've been toying with since The Fountainhead (senior year of high school), and if altruism is false, it means I'm doing good things to make myself feel better.  Which is really no different than the person who is trying to get into heaven. 

Anyhow, you can see how I could be turning this over and over in my head.  I'm not sure what I think.  I do, however, emphatically think that morality has, in the end, very little to do with what, if any, God you worship.  But I also think that many of the issues that average Americans think are black and white are in fact gray, and maybe, in their eyes, that makes me immoral.  There is no set "correct" morality.  There is no one morality for all Americans.  (I don't consider swearing or homosexuality immoral; I would guess many, many Americans do.  Thus, morality is fluid.  Who is correct?)  I don't have an answer, here, I just have more questions.  But I think that the principle that guides my morality--is it harmful to another?--is pretty solid.  And I don't believe in any sort of conventional god.

Comments

[Susan]

Re: thinking for yourself--You have to see "Thank You For Smoking" if you haven't already! It's a fabulous commentary on that very subject and also a hilarious entertainment that both you and S. might enjoy. Personally, I don't think a belief in God determines the "morality" of a person, but I do think that religion has served to codify basic rights and wrongs (like let's make human sacrifice a wrong). Unfortunately, human nature often supercedes--and how people interpret religion to fit their own interests is often at odds with what is truly right. S.N.