Taj Morgan

UWRT 1103
Mrs. Thomas
14 April, 2016

Thesis Paper

Morality is defined as the principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good
and bad behavior. Most religions have a set ruling of what they believe is right and wrong. While
these may vary from religion to religion, the idea is that these rules are needed for people to be
viewed as a good man in the eyes of God.
Times are beginning to change as more people are beginning to affiliate themselves with no
religion. Agnosticism and atheism are increasing at a rapid rate with a 6.7% increase within 7
years, probably due to the advancement of science and technology and a lowered feeling of
pressure to actually be religious. As un-affiliation to religion continues to increase, a question has
be asked. What will happened to the morality of people without religion? Since religion gives the
set rules of how to be a good person, will we become evil? This bring us to my Thesis question:
Do we actually need God to be a good person? Is morality maintained through constant
reminding and upholding of Gods holy word? Christians and other religions may believe so
but I think morality is a separate factor from religion.
So Christians say that without God there is no foundation for reality. (Craig) They believe that
God is the basis for morality. Without God, our uniqueness as human beings is taken away, and

we would be just like any other animal. But I think they forgot how alike some animals are to
us.
I sometimes think they forget we are mammals. Mammals depend on social bonds. They are able
to show compassion (find more characteristics). More intelligent mammals such as apes,
dolphins and elephants are able to characteristics such as emotion, empathy and fairness. They
show these characteristics without being bound by morality, showing that these things are innate.
As humans as a species developed into what we are today, we decided to let a couple of people
from a probable oligarchy to pick and choose what they believe was right and wrong.
To understand the debate between the need of God for morality, I think we need to discuss the
basis of morality for each side.
Christians get their morality from the bible. The bible has the set of rules God has personally
given for Christians to follow. That along with the Ten Commandments gives a Christian the
direct guide to heaven.
The difference with people with no religions believes in the concept of harms. (Armstrong) The
idea comes from understanding that you as a person are aware that some type of wrongness is
being done. Harm is identified as bad when you cause things such as pain, death, and disability
to yourself or others for no reason at all. You would understand that these things are immoral
because you realize that inflicting these harms, and made the choice to do them.
For example, we all know that rape is immoral. Why? Because the oppressor would first try to
disable the victim, and more than likely cause physical and also emotional pain. Causing the
victim these harms proves that the act is therefore immoral.

*talk about bill gates being atheist and how he donates to multiple charities*
*talks about what Christians believe what is morality*
*talk about doing it because of fear and god and for heaven*
talk about secular fam values

Christianity is an immoral system. There is a loops