Reasons Other than God to be Moral
The Catholic Encyclopedia defines morality as "human conduct in so far as it is freely subordinated to the ideal of what is right and fitting." On the other hand, one definition that Encarta Encyclopedia gives for morality is "good or right, when judged by the standards of the average person or society at large." There are many different definitions of morality but most people would agree that morality is doing the 'right thing' for others or society. Morality is one of the bases of our society; we form our laws on the majority's opinions of what is right and wrong. Long ago, St. Augustine conceived the idea of the separation between church and state, and the idea took hold. This means that the laws for our society cannot be based on religion, but on the desire to have a peaceful, ordered society. So, humanity's overall need for a sound structure in our society gives us reasons, other than the belief in God, why we should act morally. First, our laws act as influences for people to act morally but the general desire to make the world a better place to live in is a reason for people to act morally. If people choose to do the right thing, then it will make life more comfortable for others and therefore help create a relatively p
Finally, many people will argue with the thesis that I have proposed in this paper, however, they have not thought about this issue thoroughly enough. One might argue that human nature is not basically good, that people do not have any desire to be kind to their fellow man. The flaw in this objection is the mere fact that in our societies we have volunteers, non-profit organizations, and environmentalists. Volunteers do not get paid for their services; the only reward that they get is the satisfaction of helping others live a more comfortable life. We have many non-profit organizations across the world that work to improve the lives of people less fortunate. Environmentalists work everyday to find ways to prolong the natural resources on the earth so that our future generations might benefit from them too. These are all examples that show the compassion and loyalty that most of humanity shares towards its brothers; this is a strong showing of morality. In conclusion, religion is a very important part of every society but there is a boundary between the structural "laws" of a society and the religious "laws". The belief in God is a reason to be moral; the fear of Hell and hope for Heaven is a very good reason to be moral in the religious sense. However, is this saying that the people that do not believe in a god are not moral, or have no reason to be moral? They do indeed have a reason to be moral; there are societal reasons to be moral. Human kind has a desire to liv
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Approximate Word count = 997
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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