Just A Thought ~ MORALITY ON A FIRM FOUNDATION

“To rest morality upon religious beliefs is a risky procedure, for such beliefs are subject to change, and their fall may damage the moral code allied with them.

“Everyone who has discovered the weakness or falsity of the evidence upon which his religion is based P. will be tempted to believe that the morality is as chimerical as the religion it is founded upon. This is how it is that the words infidel and libertine have become synonymous.

“There would be no such disadvantage if a natural morality were taught instead of a theological. Instead of prohibiting debauchery, crime and vice because God and religion forbid them, we ought to say that all excess is harmful to man’s conservation, makes him despicable in the eyes of society, is forbidden by reason ...... and is forbidden by nature, which wants him to work for his lasting happiness”.

~ Baron d’Holbach, French philosopher, 1723-1789, extracted from The Age of Voltaire, by Will Durant ~

We can tell children that if they are good, we will give them a candy, but if they’re naughty, we will spank them, and such a technique might have the desired result of persuading the kids to behave. But tell a grown man the same thing and see what will happen. We must appeal to people’s sense of responsibility and reason; many people no longer believe in heaven and hell, so to hold out such inducements will have little effect. Things should follow on from Right Understanding.