Philosophy Now Forum

Tim Madigan on scientific versus religious explanations of ethical behaviour.

http://philosophynow.org/issues/51/The_ ... f_Morality

Somebody made up the rules of morality, like the Gold Rule and the Ten Commandments. But I don't think they came from any deity. I think they came about out of human experience and the feeling that they make sense.

Having said that, religion took the lead in promulgating them. It is religious organization (human constructs) that originally made those morals pervasive through scripture. But religion did not facilitate the practices from which we could learn directly from and about them. Everyday experience and human activity, whether it be in business or many other human interactions, is what made them known and appreciated.

We could even argue that religion is a means of maintaining codes of morality, rather than morality being a product of religion. Rather than there being 'no morality without God', we argue that there is 'no God without morality'.