Monday 6 December 2010

Two questions for believers

In thinking about morality and how religion tries so very hard to claim it as a 'god-given' thing, I have two questions for believers on the subject (for the Abrahamic religions specifically). Not all believers may hold the beliefs I refer to in them, but I expect the majority do in some form. An additional question might be "if you don't believe these things, why not?". But I digress:

1) If morality in humans is something that has been given to us by your deity and is a reflection of it's 'will', or a natural extension of the deity (i.e. 'god-given' morality is innate in all of us), why do some of your deities actions in your holy books seem to us to be utterly immoral?

2) As there is no reason why an atheist could not live as moral, or possibly a more moral life than a believer, why does your deity additionally require belief in it's existence to grant people entry into heaven, and how is that moral?

I do wonder how these things are squared in the minds of believers.