Is Morality Derived From Religion?
Perhaps it was morality and altruism that caused the evolution of the very first batches of homo-erectus into homo-sapiens. Our ancestors lived on trees and in caves, with no running water or electricity, not knowing when they would get their next meal, constantly fearful of being torn into tethers by wild beasts..... yet they were moral.
They covered their naked bodies with animal hides and leaves, while hunger, disease, and extreme weather conditions gnawed away at their very flesh ..... they were moral. Mothers cared for their babies, fathers went out to hunt animals putting their very lives at risk to bring home food, because they were moral.
They lived in groups so that they could protect each other, because they were moral. There were no religions, prophets or clergymen preaching to them about the wrath of god, yet they were moral.
There is no question about whether morality existed or not because we know with certainty, that we as a species of human-beings would have long perished had we not been moral and altruistic-beings.
There was no other recourse we could have taken; for morality and altruism is not a higher form of behaviour (as some would like us to believe) it is the basic instinct of survival, without which evolution of mankind could not have been possible.
If morality is the innate nature of human-kind why then....do the clergy claim, that morality is derived from religion? Why then do the theists, (polytheist, and monotheist) of every caste and creed claim that without religion mankind is doomed to immorality and nothingness?
Having stated that, it becomes imperative that we delve into the concept and meaning of morality. Standards of morality differ for each of us, what might be immoral for some might be moral for others. Again what was moral a century ago might be immoral now.
A perfect example is slavery, up until a hundred and fifty years ago slavery was an accepted behaviour even by religious communities, perhaps that is why most religions refrain from condemning it.
However in this day and age, without a doubt it would be considered a heinous crime to buy or sell human-beings. The same goes for child-marriage, female infanticide, subjugation of women, forced marriage, honor killing, female circumcision, burning widows on husband's pyre (sati), chopping of the hands, stoning to death etc.
Whilst many of these social-evils continue to be practised in backward societies, it is generally regarded as cruel and immoral, by vast majority of people. Most of these social evils have 'ironically' been derived from religion itself. Whilst the religious continue to claim that morality is the consequence of religion, in reality it is just the opposite.
Spinoza the great rationalist of seventeenth century philosophy, said that morality is that which best serves an individual's true nature, it is in one's own best interest to be virtuous and to see others follow virtuous ways and thrive as rational beings. Spinoza who was inspired by Aristotle, set the path of enlightenment for eighteenth century philosophers.
His life shows that one can be a perfectly ethical being without believing in religious dogma.
Coming back to the present day real-life situations... It was heartening to read in the news that Bill Gates and Warren Buffet the world's two richest atheist-philanthropists have partnered to create the world's most powerful charity.
Buffet who is the world's second richest man has announced to give 85 % of his wealth (which amounts to a whopping 37 billion in dollars) to charity. Fifth-sixth of the money will reportedly go 'The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation', which specializes in finding cures for diseases that plaque impoverished nations. philosophy
02 Nov 2008 | 710 sanjith menon says: Location: chennai Posts: 4
religion is for the priests. they make a lot of money and live their life doing so, for poor working class like us, beleif in god is enough.
02 Dec 2008 | 747 Dr Zia says: Location: UK Posts: 1
www.pakpositive.com
Today we see that Pakistan is falling further and further into a failed state syndrome. Although their are several reasons for that but by far the biggest one of them is religion. When we separated from India the aspiration of the Qaid was that Pakistan was to be a secular state where everybody will be free to follow any religion but would answer to a secular constitution which gives everybody equal rights and duties.
What the Qaid overlooked was the corrosive affect which any religion but specially adherence to Islam can have on any nation.
He miscalculated that Islam is a vice in which once you are gripped, you cannot come out in one piece. Islam has built in itself such safety measures that it forces its followers to propel it further and there is no turning back. Murtids and Munafiqs are ordained to be put to death.
What this does is the exact opposite of what islam is attempting. Instead of engendering piety it makes people hypocrites.
Early Islamic ideology was quite simple and based on basically verse 9:29 of the Quran. Followers were gathered and led forays to collect the loot and give 20% to the Prophet. This same policy empowered by verse 9:29 and few other similar verses was continued by Rashidun empire and the subsequent caliphs.
Once the islamic empire ran out of steam it went into a natural decline.
Upon taking stock it found that the ideology which propelled it so far was unable to maintain in the modern world due to having archaic and contradictory laws in its scriptures. Jettisoning Islam completely was not easy due to the above mentioned safety measures and the general illiteracy which was prevalent in Islamic culture, even though one or two countries like Turkey were lucky enough to force through secularism in their constitution.
The rest of the Islamic countries just suffered badly with bad governance and naturally the emerging civilizations in the west also undermined them but that is another topic and can be discussed separately.
Coming back to Pakistan, here we were very unlucky that the founder died only a year later and without putting the country on a footing which he had envisioned. Consequently all sorts of power brokers and Islamists were able to sneak in through the back door. Being an invasive ideology, Islam continued to grip Pakistan, no doubt with the help of corrupt power brokers and generals.
Now we are in a situation which is not unique in Islamic or sharia dominated countries. We have been brought up on a plethora of hyped up peaceful qualities of Islam whereas upon closer inspection we can easily find that this is not the case. Majority of Pakistanis do not know what quran or ahadiths contain. These scriptures exhort the believers to propagate Islam and punish and ostracize the non compliers. This is exactly what the Taliban and other Islamic idelogues are killing us for. To them, we are not complying by cavorting with infidels and unbelievers, running banking and stock market sector, producing and selling alcohol, watching tv and listening to music and attempting to provide gender equality to name but few ills, in their eyes we are hypocrites. The irony is that they are right. By calling ourselves muslims but unable to follow most editcts of Islam we do fall in that category. For that reason, they also have the moral superiority whereas only our lipservice to Islam makes us feel ashamed and unable to fight them with all our might.
What is to be done? I am sure you can read differing views on this but in my view the only way for us is to really familiarise ourselves with our scriptures. Read the Quran and Ahadith and Siratunnabi with understanding and as a whole package and then make a conscious decision to sidetrack religion to our private domain and adopt secularism or join the islamist wholeheartedly.
What the Qaid overlooked was the corrosive affect which any religion but specially adherence to Islam can have on any nation.
He miscalculated that Islam is a vice in which once you are gripped, you cannot come out in one piece. Islam has built in itself such safety measures that it forces its followers to propel it further and there is no turning back. Murtids and Munafiqs are ordained to be put to death.
What this does is the exact opposite of what islam is attempting. Instead of engendering piety it makes people hypocrites.
Early Islamic ideology was quite simple and based on basically verse 9:29 of the Quran. Followers were gathered and led forays to collect the loot and give 20% to the Prophet. This same policy empowered by verse 9:29 and few other similar verses was continued by Rashidun empire and the subsequent caliphs.
Once the islamic empire ran out of steam it went into a natural decline.
Upon taking stock it found that the ideology which propelled it so far was unable to maintain in the modern world due to having archaic and contradictory laws in its scriptures. Jettisoning Islam completely was not easy due to the above mentioned safety measures and the general illiteracy which was prevalent in Islamic culture, even though one or two countries like Turkey were lucky enough to force through secularism in their constitution.
The rest of the Islamic countries just suffered badly with bad governance and naturally the emerging civilizations in the west also undermined them but that is another topic and can be discussed separately.
Coming back to Pakistan, here we were very unlucky that the founder died only a year later and without putting the country on a footing which he had envisioned. Consequently all sorts of power brokers and Islamists were able to sneak in through the back door. Being an invasive ideology, Islam continued to grip Pakistan, no doubt with the help of corrupt power brokers and generals.
Now we are in a situation which is not unique in Islamic or sharia dominated countries. We have been brought up on a plethora of hyped up peaceful qualities of Islam whereas upon closer inspection we can easily find that this is not the case. Majority of Pakistanis do not know what quran or ahadiths contain. These scriptures exhort the believers to propagate Islam and punish and ostracize the non compliers. This is exactly what the Taliban and other Islamic idelogues are killing us for. To them, we are not complying by cavorting with infidels and unbelievers, running banking and stock market sector, producing and selling alcohol, watching tv and listening to music and attempting to provide gender equality to name but few ills, in their eyes we are hypocrites. The irony is that they are right. By calling ourselves muslims but unable to follow most editcts of Islam we do fall in that category. For that reason, they also have the moral superiority whereas only our lipservice to Islam makes us feel ashamed and unable to fight them with all our might.
What is to be done? I am sure you can read differing views on this but in my view the only way for us is to really familiarise ourselves with our scriptures. Read the Quran and Ahadith and Siratunnabi with understanding and as a whole package and then make a conscious decision to sidetrack religion to our private domain and adopt secularism or join the islamist wholeheartedly.