[AnotherUnixGeek]

There is no morality outside of religion because there is no reason for any code of morality binding more than one person

Yes, there is. Religious people often seem to have trouble understanding that others can find a basis for ethics and morality that doesn't involve some supernatural being threatening them with eternal damnation. It makes me wonder if such people will abandon all of their ethics and responsibilities to their fellow man if their faith ever weakens.

[ThanhPhero]

There is in your own mind and it does not affect anyone else's own mind. When each decides morality for himself then the word is a meaningless sound because there is no norm by which any one person can expect another to act. Even your morality derives directly from religion. Your ideas that there is anything such as morality derives from the religious underpinning of the society in which you live.

Capitalism was invented by the Jews in Europe in the Middle Ages and was only possible because of Jewish morality which permitted them to trust each other because the fact of being Jews gave them the knowledge that certain behaviour could be expected. If they had to rely on each man deciding his own morality it would never have happened. Trade would have remained primitive. The Christians were able to follow the Capitalist path the Jews opened up because they understood and believed in the same morality because it derived from the same ultimate source. It was promulgated by an outside source that was trusted itself, to wit, God. It is happening in Asia now. In Viet Nam the Catholics were the businessmen because Christians can trust other Christians who are not co-familial. The Buđhists saw the benefits and learned to follow suit, by adopting the Other-derived morality of the Christians and the country is developing fast. Korea, that business miracle of the modern Age brings it from that same Christian background which has been strong in that country for centuries.