The Moral Compass

Over recent weeks there appears to be a lot written in the press about where we get our moral guidance from. 

As an atheist I find it amazing when Christians claim that moral behaviour is derived from their God and that those who do not follow their religion cannot have morals.

I am sure that those of other religions also claim to have the only true moral guidance, from their religion.  These I am less likely to read about as the focus in the UK press tends to be about Christianity, amid claims that this is a Christian country (despite evidence to the contrary).

There are two key problems with these claims, both well known but seemingly ignored by the religious.

Firstly, if what they are saying is true, they are only prevented from committing murder, rape, crime and so on by guidance from their God.  The Bible is the guide for Christians and anyone reading it can see that there is much that is immoral by the standards of the majority of right thinking people.  We only need to look at the treatment of homosexuality in the Bible and the many references to mass slaughter.

Secondly it is clear that the majority of atheists have good moral standards, something that the religious would claim to be impossible.

Certainly there are good and bad in both camps, but there is no evidence that religion is essential to be moral.

It is about time that religious people stopped trying to claim the high ground on this and accept that moral behaviour is a characteristic of the majority of the human race.