Physophical Question of the Day:

[ickaimp]

Bizzare Job Opening of the Day:
'Human Intelligence Instructor **Secret Clearance Required**'

Y'know, I can't make these sort of titles up. ^^;;

Physophical question of the week day:

A while back, one the kids I watch was doing their spelling homework, making sentances with their spelling words. The sentance the kid came up with (and he was rather proud of this) was:

"We burned the church down to the ground."

I was kind of horrified by this, and steered the sentance to something else, also using the spelling words. But he couldn't understand why I was disturbed by this sentance and I couldn't figure why he wasn't. Until he said that he'd never been to one. To him, a church was just a building. ~_~

-Since his father is supposedly bringing them up Christian, that's for him to teach them about and one discussion I'm not getting into. I'm there to make sure homework gets done.

But I was talking to my Dad about this and he made a comment that has had me thinking. He thought that it was a pity that the kids weren't going to some sort of church, because religion tended to be one of the major things that shaped one's morals and sense of right and wrong.

I've been kind of pondering that ever since... Just how much does religion reflect on a person's sense of morals or is something that is more dependant on the person?

er, does that make sense? ._.

impfics: Murder on the Dancefloor (Kazuha/Heiji)

Comments

[joisbishmyoga.livejournal.com]

The question is a little ambiguous in and of itself, but I'll give it a shot. The morals of various cultures and societies (but not of individuals) is very strongly related (IMHO) to their history, though not necessarily to the exact codes of their historical religion. Case in point: modern America vs. 18th-century America. Slavery, women's rights, dueling, criminal punishments. 18th-century America was closer to the Biblical rules than we are, but we would claim superior morality. However, we would also, as a society, agree that we're rooted in JudeoChristian law... as opposed to, say, Islamic.

As for personal morals... I truly think that is dependant on the person, not their religion. Too many people go to church, temple, or mosque by habit, and never think about what they're being told. Case in point: adherents of The Rapture. "All us worthy, wonderful, morally superior believers will be saved, and watch in glee as everybody who disagrees with us burns in eternal torment." Spot the moral contradiction.

Another case in point: You're not really going to find large numbers of secular people until very recently. If religion = morality, there shouldn't be much in the way of murder, theft, rape, war, etc. etc. etc. until recent decades when it was safe to be an atheist.

I'm probably extremely biased. I was raised with Christmas and Easter as basically secular holidays, got most of my religious knowledge from holiday TV and choir songs, and only went to church for a couple years during the worst part of my parents' divorce. I thought for over a decade that "religion" was more about one-upping the other parent to get custody than anything moral or spiritual, and I still rather believe that religion is just another tool for fearmongering, political manipulation, and egotism.