*Originally posted by Euthanasiast *
**What you are essentially asking, if I understood you correctly, is this: Is there a need for God to maintain order and morality?
The argument is that if there were no God, people would run amuck in the streets and laws would be meaningless; we need God for morality to exist. This argument is lost on all non-theists, as they tend to understand that a fundamental inherent moral base is mutually exclusive from religion or any God. Those who choose to believe in a diety are confused by this line of reasoning. Perhaps all that is needed is an understanding of what is meant when it is said that an absence of God makes you a BETTER person morally, not worse; the existence of God in your life creates a propensity for the corruption of your own morality. It does not combat it.
Consider for a moment the laws of Christianity apply, that you have sinned, and you have broken some code of virtue as defined by the doctrine of morality in Christianity. You are accountable to God to make ammends for your indescretion. Because you are a Christian, your sins have already been paid for, even before you commited them. You simply need to accept the Son of God as your savior and all of your sins are washed away in the eyes of God. This is a wonderful thing for those poor souls who are Christians and have a difficult time removing themselves from their basic collective human dispositions. One of the catchy little jingles Christians are so fond of throwing around is that, “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven.” If ever an excuse to overlook your casual indescretions in regard to sin, if only for a moment, existed–this is it.
Because the one that you are responsible to has already forgiven you, where are the feelings of remorse for having done
something you know to be wrong? Haven’t you at least dulled the blow of guilt? Where is the strong deterent for repeating this offense at your next moment of weakness? It is only when you take God from the equation, and wipe religion from the table that you realize that you are accountable to yourself. I would dare say that we are far more strict with ourselves than the Christian God of today.
God forgives the police officer who failed to run down the perpetrator and foil his escape, but you can be assured that the police officer will be absolutely brutal on himself for his failure to make the arrest. He may not ever forgive himself. The Christian woman who stole a dollar from the cash register where she works because she needed a Coke really bad is forgiven immediately in the eyes of God, yet if she has any morals about her she’s having at least a little trouble getting to sleep that night. The man who made a pass at his neighbor’s wife is hating himself for it, smacking himself upside the head for not being able to control himself, and wishing that he could take it all back, yet God acts as if it never happened. Is it any wonder, the effects that this has on society in time?
Another fantastic thing about being accountable to yourself is that you get to take full credit for everything that you have done in your life that pleases you. It was YOU that raised your children properly, made eagle on the sixth hole, beat your oldest son in a quick game of basketball, got the promotion you had been busting your ass to get, figured out what was wrong with your car stalled on the side of the road and fixed it without the aide of a repairman, a tow truck, or a simple smile from some sky pixie. If you can suspend your line of thinking when it comes to religion for just a moment and understand what is being said here, you will feel what so many atheists have felt when they finally dismissed God, self empowerment.
And once you experience this empowerment, you may find that going back to religion and God is akin to shackling your spirit to a rock. You have given up your freedoms. You have given up your choice. You have given in to your indescretions. You have turned in your morality card.
Morality with God? History has already proven that it doesn’t work. Morality with oneself? Happens all the time. After all, virtue is its own reward. Ask yourself how many criminals go to jail and find God. God is easy to find in a den of sinners, because he offers them the one thing that they cannot give themselves, fogiveness.
Think about that. **