How To Be Morally Good Without God:
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Paul Kurtz was born in 1925 and was an American expert on Secular Humanism. Secular Humanism is a doctrine that “rejects supernatural accounts of reality; but it seeks to optimize the fullness of human life in a naturalistic universe” (Kurtz 8). Simply stated, it is a guide to living one’s life ethically, but without religious influence. Kurtz further explains it as “a eupraxsophy (good practical wisdom), which draws its basic principles and ethical values from sciences, ethics, and philosophy” (Kurtz 19). When one desires to live an ethical life without godly guidance, aspects of Secular Humanism, especially relying on human experience, as in the “trial and error” method, are advantageous to one’s lifestyle. Secular Humanism tends to reject theology and bases itself on societal views. Kurtz continues:
Secular Humanism by Paul Kurtz
Paul Kurtz (1925-2012)
…humanists even consider humanist ethics to be its most important characteristic, which should be emphasized in response to religionists, who egregiously maintain that “you cannot be good without belief in God.” Humanists hold that ethical values are relative to human experience and need not be derived from theological or metaphysical foundations. (Kurtz 35)
As humanity grows and evolves, society does too, and a revaluation of what is ethically acceptable is constant. Precedents of human experiences shape how future humans will act when given circumstances.
An example of how a Secular Humanist may act in a situation applicable to everyday life: based on what a Secular Humanist may have been taught growing up, lessons that did not have religious implications, he or she would know that it is morally wrong to steal. These lessons would take place at home or at school. Due to these prior taught lessons, the Secular Humanist would not steal and result in being ethical. The action of not stealing was based on precedent teachings that stealing was wrong, he or she came to this conclusion without theological pressure.
A parent teaching his children that it is not right to steal.
In summary, there is evidence to support that religion is no longer necessary to live ethically. As Kurtz elaborates in Science and Ethics: Can Science Help Us Make Wise Moral Judgements?:
In reference to morality, there is an important tradition of philosophical inquiry from Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Spinoza, Kant, and Mill, down to the present – which contests the idea that ethics necessarily belongs under the magisterium or religious faith. Philosophical ethical inquiry seeks alternative principles and values. It is not the pursuit of salvation, but of individual happiness and social justice that is the purpose of ethical inquiry…They resist ceding their ethical domain to the magisterium of religion. (Kurtz, and Koepsell 261)
Truly, this is something to be argued about if many great minds all agree that religious influence is not necessary.
A Secular Humanist rejecting religion and favouring Life Experience.
