User:Woozle/Morality Without God
Introduction
Apparently many people believe that God is the source of all morality; that without God, we would all act selfishly and amorally – casually hurting and killing each other for the sake of a passing fancy or a moment of pleasure, and generally doing whatever we thought we could get away with.
Not only do many people believe this, but it is apparently also widely taught, and many more people come to believe it each day. The argument for the necessity of believing in God becomes completely compelling when one believes that God is the source of all goodness, and so more and more people feel compelled to believe in God in order to spread goodness and to keep the forces of evil and selfishness from victory.
Wanting to be a force for good, and to overcome the forces of evil, is a commendable goal. I highly recommend it to everyone, and I try to follow it myself – but I do not find myself depending on the existence of a God in order for there to be goodness, nor in order for me to be a good person.
Since many of the same people who have been taught that God is the source of all morality have also not been taught any other basis upon which to build a moral foundation for their lives, I thought I would make an attempt to explain mine. It is by no means a shining example but I believe it to be quite serviceable, and perhaps others can fine-tune it to better serve their core values.