Without Religion, Morality is a Free-For-All
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
- John Adams, a founding father of the United States of America and one of the authors of the United States Constitution.
Take one look at social media: the U.S is divided around politics. One of the most common things I, as a 16 year old, see is people claiming that their political beliefs aren’t just political beliefs, but basic human rights and moral beliefs. Because of this, many people view those that disagree with them as morally corrupt and evil.
Let’s take abortion. Generally, Christianity supports the Pro-Life movement. In the past, abortion was widely considered wrong. Even people that didn’t think it was wrong believed it should be done only when absolutely necessary. Today, abortion is considered a woman’s right by the Pro-Choice movement.
The crazy thing about this is that Pro-Lifers genuinely believe that abortion is murder and is evil, and Pro-Choicers believe that denying a woman an abortion is freedom infringement and is evil. So both sides believe the other side is evil, which raises the issue above political beliefs. This stems from the fact that religious values and simple beliefs, like when life begins, differ amongst people.
“Morality binds and blinds. It binds us into ideological teams that fight each other as though the fate of the world depended on our side winning each battle. It blinds us to the fact that each team is composed of good people who have something important to say.”
- Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
A lot can go wrong when a group of people have contradicting moral beliefs. Haidt summarizes the exact problem happening in the US around morality. We are all bound to an ideological team and this causes a lot of division. Our moral beliefs blind us and make us believe that people that disagree with us are evil at the core.
Why is this happening? Let’s look back a little. In the 1950s, 70% of the US population was Protestant. Because of this, most people had similar moral beliefs. It was alright to have different political beliefs because, at the end of the day, almost everyone held Christian-based beliefs and morals.
This just isn’t true anymore. In 2020, only 40% of the population was protestant, and 20% was non-religious. Religion is declining, and so are shared moral values. This explains the division in the US, especially around moral topics such as abortion. We have especially seen this in regard to LGBTQ issues. PEW Research did a study that showed in 2002, the percentage of Americans that said homosexuality should be accepted was 51%. By 2019, the percentage had risen to 72%. This reveals the idea that beliefs are shifting quickly, because an issue like LGBTQ rights, which wasn’t important to many people just 20 years ago, is now a huge political focus and an important moral issue.
In many topics, though, the shift in moral beliefs is causing a lot of division. But now, turning everyone in the US back to the same religion is likely impossible and not the goal.
But if we want our nation to persevere through the division, something has to change.
This is not just a battle of beliefs. It's also a question of whether we can or should detach the beliefs from the person, and still say, "People can still regard one another as good while holding strongly opposing beliefs.” This is something that we all need to be able to do, especially as the USA becomes more and more divided.
Morality is of the highest importance - but for us, not for God.
- Albert Einstein
Morality needs to exist, even if people aren’t religious. The thing is, morality is subjective unless it is based on religious beliefs. Anything that is based on our own emotions and feelings of right and wrong is subjective, and will vary amongst all people. In order for a society to truly connect on moral values, morality must come from rational thinking and must come from something objective.
This is why religion has been and is so important in societies. When a society is built on religious beliefs, the people have a common morality around which to unite. Moral values without religion rely on the ever-changing emotions of humans, which are not always consistent.
Because of this, religion is the best way for a society to bond over similar moral values. Without religion, morality is a free-for-all.
“Without God, there is no virtue, because there’s no prompting of the conscience. Without God, we’re mired in the material, that flat world that tells us only what the senses perceive. Without God, there is a coarsening of the society. And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”
- Ronald Reagan, 1984
As religious values slowly slip away, the US becomes more and more divided on moral issues. If we want to survive the moral free-for-all taking place, we need to remember that our country was founded on religious freedom and that we all have the right to our own opinion. We need to acknowledge that because we all have different religious beliefs now, our morality will differ, and that doesn’t mean that the people you disagree with are evil at the core. We cannot let our differences destroy our opinions about each other and we can’t let this divide us to the point of no return.
