Morality without Religion? – Part 2

Continuing Michael's message, he asks: Why can't you have morality without religion?

Some irreligious people lead so-called decent lives. However, even though you could write down your own decent moral code of behavior, they would actually be founded on religious principles, and you could never get other people to follow them. Author James Michener, who claims to be a Secular Humanist, says, "I think that humanity with constant moral guidance can create a reasonably decent society." However, he never cites any such societies that bear out this assertion, nor does he indicate the source for such moral guidance. Historian Will Durant said, "We shall find it no easy task to construct a natural ethic strong enough to maintain moral restraint and social order without a supernatural constellation of hope and fear. There is no example of society successfully maintaining a moral society without the aid of God."  According to Napoleon, "you don't rule over men without the fear of God.  You shoot them because they have descended to the level of beasts."

People who maintain the belief that you can have morality without religion are either cut off from any knowledge of Human history or they are trying to pull the wool over our eyes with a lie. The first reason that you can't have morality without religion is that even though you can draw up your own moral code of behavior, you can't get others to follow it. The secular Humanist's have written a moral code of ethics in their Humanist Manifesto. However, they have taken Christian ethics and turned them upside down. Therefore, they oppose Christian ethics by condoning gambling, divorce, suicide, free love, fornication, adultery, incest, euthanasia, and other things, all of which biblical ethics considered immoral acts. If you declare a moral code that which is immoral, you can get others to indulge "the things of this world which oppose the things of God:  the lusts of the eyes, the pride of life, and the lusts of the flesh."  

Romans 2:13-15 “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which showed the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another.”

The second reason that you can't have morality without religion is that you can't impose your own morality on others. Ironically, this is exactly what the Secular Humanists have attempted. When they oppose your “so-called” puritanical, restrictive, close-minded, bigoted, and intolerant Christian morality, they are in-fact imposing on you their own Humanist definition of morality. They have successfully imposed their own morality on Christians by legal enforcement. This results in the tyranny of a despot's will imposed against the will of aimless individuals who have descended into anarchy. This descent was observed by Yale's president in a conference of educators when he said, "We need a new renaissance of morality in Americas colleges and universities." Instead of being applauded, he was booed and condemned. The audience countered, "Whose morality are you attempting to impose?" He couldn't answer them because he himself had abandoned Christian ethics.

When the people in Matthew 7 heard Jesus' message in “the sermon on the mount”, they were astonished or knocked out. They were knocked out because he had the audacity to declare God's ethical code with God's authority. He not only declared God's code of Ethics but He also said that He would enforce it. He said, in Matthew 7:22-23  "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." Jesus Christ as God's righteous judge will judge according to God's code of morality. Only God can impose and enforce His morality on others according to His Word.

Let's continue Michael's message on morality in the next post.

In Christ, Brian