On the subject of morality and religion...

[daeggman]

I read a blog post about this Rabbi who seemed to be making the argument that because Bernie Madoff confessed to his crimes and turned himself over to the authorities, and because Captain Sullenberger (the Hudson landing pilot) did not give credit to God for the amazing landing, that somehow Madoff is more of a moral person that Sully. I found

Comments

[ysidro]

Not all religions use fear of punishment to encourage "right behavior".

Wait, why is the atheist arguing for religion? Oh well, it's still all crud. :D

[daeggman]

They don't all use fear of punishment, but they do use things like promise of eternal reward (self-serving), deity worship (pleasing Him-who-could-smite, which is simply the flipside of "fear of retribution"), working ones way up the reincarnation ladder (self-serving), and karma (which is also a flipside of "fear of retribution" and also possibly self-serving).

Isn't it nobler then to do good or to do right simply because it is good or right rather than to do it for one of the many other fear-based or self-serving reasons?