Emmy said:
Dear David Gould,I did answer your question,but it looks as if my answer got lost.I often asked that question WHY can`t people see? It would be so easy,all that is needed would be Love,love for God,our Creator,and love for our fellow-men and fellow-women.The result and the reward would be tremendious.Treat others as you would like to be treated yourself,I tried it and it works.You know the saying:"People will treat you as they find you." And if you love God and keep telling Him and showing Him,it will be amazing how you whole life changes.Perhaps one day people will try and find what a difference it makes.Sincere greetings from Emmy,a sister in Christ.
I'm happy that this works for you but it would seem to indicate that, first a belief in God and then a love for God, is necessary before morality can be the primary governing factor of one's behavior. Perhaps it is only that you tend to treat others well, a lesson you attribute to God, that causes others to treat you well in return.
Some of the nicest, most considerate, moral people I have known have been atheists. Certainly no belief in God or "a god" is necessary for morality to exist and in many cases, I've witnessed less moral behavior from those who believe most strongly in the Christian religion. Certainly it's not specific to Christians, but some seem to conclude that because they believe in God and Christianity that they are given an extra measure of latitude by God in their behavior, especially toward those who don't share their belief.
I visit a number of different forums and if I had to pick one as having the worst overall behavior toward others, I'm sad to conclude that it would be right here at CF. That's not to say that I haven't met a great number of people with vast patience, great intelligence and extreme politeness, but it's more than offset by others who, though they consider themselves Christians, treat others with scant respect and seem to feel a need to mock and debase those who possess dissimilar opinions, (this thread, to date, and many others excluded). Before anyone concludes that those dissimilar opinions are religiously based, let me assure you that my most memorable examples had little to do with religion. People seem more inclined to viciously and disrepectfully defend their politics, diet and a small number of other topics than they do their religious beliefs but I have also seen a number of examples where religion is defended against respectful questions with rudeness and blatant condemnation.
Morality, it seems, has no requirement for any specific religious beliefs nor any religious beliefs. All that is required is the ability to assess behavior that would be offensive to one's self, and the ability to refrain from such behavior toward others. Put much more eligantly, it's the old and trusty Golden Rule, (as pointed out by others), "do unto others as you would have others do unto you".
The concept of morality can become less straight-forward when religion becomes entangled with it as other values and ideas become inter-mixed. The idea that two people who dearly love one another are living immorally because they have failed to undergo a particular cerimony is perhaps one small example.
Hopefully, I haven't lost touch with the scope of the thread and if I have, I offer my apology.