tundey_1 t1_iujmo1g wrote
Reply to comment by Financial-Agency3322 in What is morality in the absence of religion? by mambosun_
>It just doesn't happen amongst devout people.
Who is devout? Truly? There's no way to know. And thus there's no way to know what motivates religous people more: a true love for their fellow humans or a fear of eternal damnation. When you have a carrot and stick, it's impossible to truly say which motivates people (more). In fact, if either of them is the motivator that's not a win for religion either.
Whereas with atheists, there is no promise of heaven or hell.
>a religious person's aim is the highest possible good: the salvation of their own souls firstly and then the salvation of their neighbours.
Most religions claim we are children of God. Right? And most of them preach love. If as you say, a religious person's aim is the highest possible good, how do you square that with all of the violence and death that's been done in the name of religion? And usually by the most devout religious people. After all, the casual Christian who goes to church only on major holidays is not running around killing people in the name of Jesus. It's the hardcore, devout religious people that do it. It's the Catholic priests who were raping altar boys. It's the Canada churches who were forcibly trying to rid indigenous children of their culture and upon whose church grounds bodies of innocent indigenous children have been found.
https://www.npr.org/2021/07/01/1012100926/graves-found-at-new-site-canadian-indigenous-group-says
Now you may say atheist also commit atrocities and you'll be right. My point is that there is no morality credit to be automatically given to religious people.
Financial-Agency3322 t1_iujo7dg wrote
Being unable to read the soul of another person has no bearing on what that person's motivations may or may not be. I am very clearly not saying that a person who is nominally Catholic but acts only out of self interest and who is apathetic to the wants and needs of other is more virtuous than an atheist on the basis of them being nominally religious.
No, not all or even most religions are "children" of God. There is one true Faith on the face of the planet.
Finally, you're factually wrong in that last paragraph. The percentage of wars caused by religion is something around like 5%, if I remember correctly. The amount of priests who commit these crimes is around 3%, which is the lowest percentage of any group on the planet, being significantly lower than public school teachers, sitting at around 7-8% of a SIGNIFICANTLY larger number of people. In 2018, there were THIRTY cases against the Church in America, and only 8 were even substantiated in a court of law. Whereas in public school, there were millions. Of course even 8 is too high, but it is literally the lowest rate of sexual abuse on the face of the earth.
Finally, the "mass graves" thing is a myth and has been debunked time and time again. The residential schools were run primarily by protestant churches and the Canadian government and you'll find that the Catholic-run schools were regularly requesting aid because they lacked the means to take care of a populace of children who were getting ravaged by deadly diseases. The children were then buried in individual graves all marked with crosses.
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