Atheism For Dummies (For Dummies (Religion & Spirituality)) (72 page)

Being Good without a Belief in God

The idea that concepts of right and wrong have to come from a supernatural source is as old as sin. In the Genesis story, Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden for eating fruit they were told not to eat. Don’t forget that the fruit was from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And the problem wasn’t the fruit itself so much as the act of disobedience.

At the heart of this fascinating story is the idea that only God
can
know the difference between right and wrong. Morality is said to be a complete mystery to humanity, so all humans can do is follow his instructions. And when Adam and Eve failed to do that, they put the whole moral universe at risk.

So when I claim that people can know right from wrong without God’s help, I know I’m yanking at some very deep roots. And when I say people can even
be
good without God, it’s time to explain just how that works. Read on.

Why bother being good at all?

After I gave a talk several years ago, an audience member introduced himself as a Christian with a Bible-based morality. Without the guidance of God and the Bible, he said, he wouldn’t have any way of knowing right from wrong, much less any reason to be good.

I could have gone many ways with this. I could have asked why he hadn’t cut his hair the way the Bible says to, for example (Leviticus 19:27). But that’s a parlor game, and I could tell he was serious.

I could also tell that he was a decent guy, and I didn’t believe for a minute that his decency would evaporate if he suddenly learned there was no God. I believed he would still know right from wrong and would still have plenty of reasons to be good. The same ones I have, in fact. But rather than lecture him, I figured I’d get him to tell me what those reasons are himself. So I shrugged and asked, “Why should I even
care
about being good?”

His eyes widened. “Why should you even
care?
Because society would fall apart without morality! Relationships would be impossible without trust. If everyone were free to do as he pleased, it would be hell on Earth! You’d have to be looking over your shoulder all the time.”

Then he smiled. “And even if you don’t believe in God’s judgment, you’d probably spend your life in jail for your crimes.”

I nodded. “A great list. You just described all the reasons I’m good, and you did it without needing the Bible or God.”

He looked mad for a second, then sheepish, like he’d fallen for a trick. But it wasn’t a trick at all — just a simple demonstration that everyone, even those who find the Bible a useful source of moral guidance, can also find
reasons
to be good. For example:

I know what it feels like to be harmed or cheated or lied to, so I empathize with others and try not to harm, cheat, or lie to them.

When my empathy is overwhelmed by my own selfishness or greed, I get real human consequences from those around me.

Like most people, I want to be liked and respected by those around me, not held in contempt.

I don’t want to be looking over my shoulder to see if those I’ve hurt are coming after me. If I treat people well, I can relax.

The cooperation and goodwill of those people around me makes my life easier.

I have self-respect, which is based in part on how I treat others.

I don’t want to be punished for breaking the rules of the society in which I live.

I can’t really ask others to behave morally if I don’t behave morally myself.

This list can go on for pages. Some reasons are lofty and some are down to earth. Some may also be in the Bible, but they don’t rely on scripture or God — they simply make sense. I can figure them out. In fact, moral development experts say most people figure out the ethical principles that make for a moral life not from books or teachers but through their own interactions with others — on the playground, on sports teams, in their families, and in other social groups — before they’re out of elementary school.

These principles don’t guarantee my good behavior, but neither does any religious doctrine. In both cases, whenever a person loses his or her moral sense, plenty of other people and social institutions are willing to straighten that person out. Everyone makes moral decisions large and small a hundred times a day. And when those decisions are made well, everyone benefits.

Chucking Stalin and the Inquisition — and getting serious about morality

Neither religious belief nor religious disbelief is a guarantee of good behavior. Incentives like greed, power, anger, resentment, fear, or desperation can overwhelm the moral incentives listed earlier in the previous section, which can make an atheist
or
a believer behave badly.

Still, plenty of people in both camps spend an enormous amount of energy trying to paint the other side as immoral by using the bad behavior of famous monsters — dictators or criminals drunk on greed, power, anger, and all the rest — as an indictment of everyone who shares the monster’s religious (or nonreligious) label.

But using the horrendous acts of Grand Inquisitor Torquemada, or Adolf Hitler, or Fred Phelps to draw conclusions about the average Ned Flanders Christian is a stretch. Likewise, thinking that Idi Amin or Osama bin Laden are any reflection on the moral character of my Muslim neighbors ignores all the other variables that made the famous monsters what they were.

The same applies to Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and other atheists with immoral behavior to answer for. Like the religious villains, their actions say more about unchecked power than about their opinions of gods. And drawing conclusions about what it means to be an everyday atheist from Stalin is as silly as doubting the ethics of a passing Quaker because Torquemada lost his moral compass.

This brings me to a moral point worth noting. People of all worldviews should be judged on the moral standards they actually live by and endorse. Most Christians today think burning people at the stake is a bad idea, and most are outraged when Pastor Fred Phelps and members of his Westboro Baptist Church picket soldiers’ funerals with signs claiming to know that God hates gays. Few Muslims embrace the ethics of Idi Amin or Osama bin Laden. And most atheists think Stalin was an immoral criminal. Those opinions matter more than the labels they happen to share.