People who are religious or not: where do you get your ethics?
930768
the best people I know aren't religious.  its called common sense and intelligence
931566
Not necessarily.  I've seen alot with belief who step outside of what is considered moral, even by their own religions standards and then hypocritically justify it with that same religion.  I wouldn't consider that person better for their belief.  Though, on rare occaisions, I do find people with belief who have become better people for it... those are usually the one's who don't pressure others about belief.  Sad thing is, they're greatly outnumbered by those that step outside of the moral boundaries believing they are Better than others.
280970
Thanks for the statistics you provided above.  A true Christian or a ethical person will almost never support torture.  WWJD applies even to agnostics if they are ethical people.  Peace!
132433
You should read the book "Conversations With God an Uncommon Dialogue" by Neale Donald Walsch...it is VERY eye opening and explains quite a bit about people.  It explains the WHY behind a lot of the things we do.  You don't have to be religious to read it either.
890964
Is there a Department of Religious Studies, or Religion, or Comparative Religion at your university?\n\nIf so, that's the place to start.  \n\nIf not, check out courses in Philosophy, History, Classics, and Anthropology.
806044
Well said, and thank you. You might have a point. I'd like to think that one doesn't have to have no faith, to have manners, intellect, and a sense of humor. But If you've ever noticed someone who is deeply religious, they are always trying to convert you, or convince you otherwise. Whereas I've never tried to push my belief on anyone. In fact, If it wasn't for people, mostly coworkers, trying to ask for donations, or just asking me questions about my faith, they would never know that I'm not a religious person. But based on that one principal, now they keep there distance...Goddamn hypocrites!!
937841
In order to re-examine their morals, people would have to know why they believe what they do in the first place. Many individuals have adopted their morality from their environment (parents, culture, etc), and only give the "why" a casual thought. Critical thinking and reasoning are erroneously thought of as having no place in morality and religion. Culture and emotion rule.\n\nSecondly, I agree with other answerers that such a re-examination may require an adjustment to one's life(permanently?). It's better to live in blissful ignorance, either out of selfishness if sacrifice is required, out of vanity because they may be leaving the norm, or at minimum out of laziness (because change takes work).\n\nOne can only honestly stand for their morals if they have been examined in the first place.\n\nExcellent question!
491
This is an interestng question. I would begin with studying the Protestant Work Ethic. Here is a site to get you started.\n\nen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_work_ethic\n\nHere are someother sites:\nThe Work Ethic Site - www.coe.uga.edu/~rhill/workethic/\n\nThe Work Ethic Wizard\nwww.workethicwizard.com/\n\nWhy Work\nwww.whywork.org/\n\nAlan
1100441
http://catholiceducation.org/articles/medical_ethics/me0052.html
656127
If you are asking for historys sake, Ronin is right about the mostly Protestant, and Anglican thing. (In England.) If you are asking for now a days... don't worry so much about what church is right, and focus on getting your heart right. Your local pastor isn't going to be your judge, God is. Line up with His rules. Get a relationship with Him. Notice I said relationship, not religion?
222129
You might try putting yourself in their mindframe.  They believe they have the answers which will save them from eternal damnation, hell, torture and whatever else accompanies that belief.  If you knew you had this knowledge, and if you see there are millions of people in regions in the world where they do not know about this, you might feel you have a humane responsibility to help spread this information to save people.\n\nWhile I understand that impulse from a humanitarian point of view, I would fault them for not realizing there are hundreds of religions all over the world.\n\nDespite this some-what narrow minded view, missionary activities bring some benefits to a region;  often they work to build up infrastructure such as roads/electricity/etc.  In comparison, Christian missionary activities, which are humanitarian in nature, are far better than other religious actions.  A priest working in the jungles can do good for humankind, and is much preferable to detrimental forms of religious expression and atrocities that unfortunately tends to go hand in hand with religious fervor.
940389
I hope you don't mind, but I'm just going to copy and paste a previous answer I posted to a similar question:\n\nIt's called a social contract. Morals and integrity do not come from religion at all. Religion preaches about morals, but from the example of many religious leaders, it's not always the priority.\n\nA social contract is basically not doing to someone what you don't want to be done to you. I'm not going to kill people because I don't wish to be killed. I don't damage property because I know I wouldn't want my property to be damaged. \n\nPeople who have no morals are "sociopaths", getting the "socio" from the "social" from social contract and getting the "path" from the Greek word "pathological," meaning "uncontrolled or unreasonable".
149563
As an agnostic I do believe in morals values and preserving this little aquarium in space that we all live in. But being athiest does not make you any more moralistic or less than a religious person. Studies have shown that secular people have \nthe same morals as church folk. I would dare say that more have died in religously driven wars and disputes than common murder
2314
Push the religious "right" out of power and influence.  Those who cry the loudest about moral values or family values seem to be the least moral of all.\n\nThose who seek to push their beliefs on others are neither moral or right (i.e. conservative).  \n\nWe improve the true moral character of our leaders our image will follow.
494820
What is the correct religion? Are they a correct one?
84799
I think religion is a way for people to support each other in feeling spiritual and making correct moral decisions. Some people won't make good decisions on spirituality alone, and for those people, having other people around them helps.\n\nEDIT FOR ADDTNL INFO:\nWhy is anything neccessary? Why are homes neccessary? Why don't people just live at work? Eat grass? Because we as humans desire more, a more personal experience, a more organized approach. You don't get people at your community center sharing uplifting stories about standing up for what is right.
195263
You know, this is actually an interesting question.\n\nMany religious people believe that it is religion that gives them morals and prevents them from Hell and such. But really, it's not that at all. You can have morals but no religion.\n\nI believe that there is a moral world order, a sort of universal code that must be adhered to in order to preserve order and good in the world. This is not my religious feeling, but instead my moral compass, if you will. \n\nI don't do good deeds for fear of hell, or as supplication so that I may enter heaven. I do good and fight evil because I feel that good must always prevail over evil, or we will have lost our humanity, and become beasts.\n\nMorality is very often a black and white issue. Rape is never grayscale. It's never justified, and the people who commit it need to be put in prison or in an electric chair. They have forfeited their humanity, and like dangerous animals they need to be locked up or destroyed.\n\nOther issues that are black and white to me are murder, arson, and terrorism. Terrorism is never justified, no matter what. I don't care if US Black Hawk helicopters shot up your village or somthing as a kiddie and killed your mujahdeen daddy. The fact of the matter is that you can NEVER EVER kill civilians in cold blood for political reasons. You can never treat humans as tools for political advancement. \n\nMurder is never justified because killing another human being is just wrong. I say only murder, not killing, because murder is cold and premeditated. Manslaughter is also included in this. That a person could plan and execute a deadly attack on another is shocking to me.\n\nArson is never right either. No one has a good reason to be burning some buildings down.\n\nI disagree with you about Stalin. That was not religiously motivated. Nor was the Holocaust. In fact, the years 1936 to 1945 were remarkably unreligious given Germany's usually strong Catholic base. Hitler disliked the Church and largely they went along with him. However, Hitler did not claim divine support. \n\nHowever, atrocities are often commited in the name of religion. How about the Crusades, or the Thirty Years War? Thousands of lives wasted, all in the name of God!\n\nSometimes I think my moral compass is better than your Bible. I have all the morals with none of the religious radicalism.