Why do you do the right thing? Is it the fear of punishment if you don’t? Or a desire to do right by your fellow human?
Everyone is familiar with the Ten Commandments: Christianity’s rulebook telling you what you can and can’t do. Without these guidelines, we would be living in a lawless wasteland without any morals, right?
However, Christianity is a relatively young religion and morals existed prior and outside of the Ten Commandments. Christianity, and religion in general, was not, and never has been, a prerequisite to determining moral behavior.
Morality has always existed outside of religion, and there are some very interesting differences between religious and secular (nonreligious) moral guidelines.
Differences Between Religious and Secular Morality
According to Phil Zuckerman, a professor of sociology and secular studies, it actually isn’t the fervently religious who show the most moral behavior towards people around them. In his video Are Atheists more Moral than Religious People? Here are the Facts, he states that it is the secular people who actually tend to function with a higher moral standard in society than the religious crowd.
Especially when it comes to marginalized groups and cultural issues such as racism, homophobia, sexism, immigration, and many more, secular people tend to show more care and ethical behavior towards their fellow man than religious God-followers.
This is the exact opposite of what dominant religion would have you believe. But it’s not a surprise. It’s no secret the secular crowd tends to display more open-mindedness and acceptance for people whose lifestyle falls out of the realm of what is considered religiously correct.
LGBTQ+ Rights
For instance, the Southern Poverty Law Center or SPLC, reports a disturbing trend in opposition to LGBTQ+ rights from the far right in the U.S. The hard-line religious right have twisted the narrative and claimed victimhood in the fight for marriage equality and are saying that Christians voicing their opposition to marriage equality are on the receiving end of religious persecution from the LGBTQ+ community.
It’s an inviting narrative for fervent Christians who are struggling with the recent momentum in the rights of the LGBTQ+ community, and proof that when it comes to fighting for your neighbor’s rights, the fervently religious aren’t leading the charge.
Oppression of Women
Another very relevant issue that the religious and secular groups differ on is the treatment and oppression of women in fervently religious societies. Extreme religious control poses one of the most substantial threats to women, their wellbeing, and their freedom. And unfortunately, it is often justified as being moral because a religious book (the Christian Bible included) commanded it. This pattern is very evident in certain societies around the world.
The Civil Society Action Network, an organization that focuses on addressing gendered oppression and building a more peaceful world, states “For instance: women’s rights activists have long known that extremists distort religion and make selective use of it to justify violence [against women] in their quest to gain and maintain political power or access to resources. For this reason, wherever we see the rise of extremism, we can also find resistance including from secular political groups and social movements.”
It is a known, world-wide pattern that fervent religion is used as a tool to oppress women, and it is often the local secular groups who try to stand up to it.
Immigration
Also, a very divisive topic right now is immigration. The views towards the growing population of immigrants in the U.S. tend to be more positive on the secular side of the spectrum, and negative on the religious (particularly Christian) side.
The Pew Research Center reports interesting research statistics on this. They found that Christians (46%) are twice as likely as Americans of other religions (23%), and twice as likely as those with no religion (23%), to say that a growing population of immigrants has been a change for the worse.
More than half of evangelical Protestants (55%) take this position. Members of the historically Black Protestant tradition are notably less likely than Christians as a whole to view immigration negatively (26% vs. 46%).
A majority of atheists (62%) and agnostics (56%) also view the growing immigrant population as a change for the better.
This is pretty ironic considering one of the loudest messages of Christianity is that God shelters the vulnerable. The current unwelcome treatment of immigrants and refugees in the U.S. by many of the conservative Christians should be a blight on the community who say they follow a merciful God who welcomes the suffering.
Religious vs Secular Moral Foundations
Professor Zuckerman goes on to explain that the difference may lie in the foundation of religious versus secular moral compasses. While there are always exceptions, in general, religion is founded in obedience to an external (and often punitive) authority and adherence to a set of rules.
On the other hand, secular people tend to be governed by empathy and compassion instead of a set of arbitrary guidelines. They consider whether their actions will cause another person to suffer or not. There are exceptions on both sides, but in general, this is the main difference between religious and secular morals.
Seeing your neighbor through the lens of empathy rather than a set of often exclusive rules is what’s important. Being able to see others’ humanness and acknowledge their ability to suffer is what makes a solid moral compass and makes people productive members of society.
That’s not to say every religious person is amoral, or that every secular person is moral. However, if you have to be told by a supernatural being’s rulebook not to purposefully cause harm to someone else, are you actually a good person following a solid moral compass, or are you just being obedient?
The ability to look past arbitrary religious guidelines and see your neighbor as a feeling human and form a moral compass based on someone else’s wellbeing is more socially and intellectually evolved than a fervent adherence to a set of rules.
Personal Experience With Secular vs Religious Morals
A lot of the religious crowd think it’s not possible to have morals without religion. It’s a pretty common thought process that atheists or agnostics have no moral guidelines and live lawlessly.
I grew up in a very conservative Christian environment. I was raised “Go to church or go to hell” — I am very familiar with the line of thought that without Christianity, the world would be pure evil and ungovernable.
It wasn’t until I was an adult and separated myself from this environment that I realized this couldn’t be farther from the truth.
What stood out the most to me was examining the very foundation of Christian theology: God loves you so much that if you don’t love him back, he’ll send you to hell to suffer forever. Sounds healthy, right?
When seen through the lens of empathy and a desire to not cause suffering for others, the foundation of this theology is immoral. I don’t think a god who erases free will and supposedly causes eternal suffering for so many who don’t choose him has any moral highground over anyone else.
And this doesn’t even touch the suffering he directly causes or allows in the Bible and on earth. Why would I want to be held to the moral standard of a god who supposedly wiped out civilization on a whim, sent an angel of death to kill innocent children, and does nothing to stop the rampant suffering happening in our world right now?
In my opinion, compassion and empathy do more for the world and mankind than fervent religion ever did. So, show empathy and compassion to your neighbor and follow a moral compass that transcends religious dogma.