“These sort of stories highlight the fact that without religion, there can be no morality. It is impossible to explain without any religious context why things like rape, murder, stealing, lying and whatnot are indeed wrong.”
How absurd and vile. They are wrong because they are contrary to the very nature of human beings, the very necessity for them to survive as human beings. The human mind cannot function on lies. A human cannot exist without producing and stealing is a denial of that basic human requirement and must except a lie to violate that truth. It is the very nature of human beings to understand that “pleasure” is the reward for correct choices and pain the consequence of wrong ones. A pleasure enjoyed that is not earned is like stealing, enjoying that which is unearned and undeserved. It is a basic human requirement to know that one is worthy of what one enjoys in life, and must suffer the psychological consequences for attempting to enjoy what is not earned, and consequences of the lie to cover up that guilt.
Perhaps you would not be able to figure out that rape, murder, stealing, lying are wrong, without some authority telling you they are, but truly moral people do not need to be told they are wrong.
What you are implying is that rape, murder, stealing, and lying are only wrong because God said so. If He said they were OK, would they be?
Hank
If we take the view that humans are descended from lower order animals, then how can this be true? In the animal kingdom, the only rule is survival of the fittest. Animals kill other animals, steal from other animals, take the mates of other animals because that is their instinctively driven behavior. If we are descended from those same animals, then how can it be in our very nature to not do these things?
Perhaps you would not be able to figure out that rape, murder, stealing, lying are wrong, without some authority telling you they are, but truly moral people do not need to be told they are wrong.
Then how did those people learn to do it? And how did the people who taught those who taught these moral people learn? Where did what we consider to be good behavior come from?
What you are implying is that rape, murder, stealing, and lying are only wrong because God said so. If He said they were OK, would they be?
I am not implying it, I am explicitly saying it. Look at the Islamic faith as an example for how morality is derived from religion. In this faith, the holy book states very clearly that it is perfectly OK to kill nonbelievers, that it is perfectly OK to lie to advance the cause of Islam and that it is perfectly OK to have sex with minor girls. Many followers of Islam who agree with these tenets do so because Allah told them it was OK.
Likewise, societies that base their morality, and ultimately their laws upon laws listed in the Bible do so because we believe that God told is this was the right thing to do.