Editor’s Note: Morality is a very timely topic as the percentage of secularists grows in the US and as Americans weigh their choices in the presidential primary elections. While Republican candidates tout their Christian bona fides, Democrats defer discussion of religion unless asked, and then stress the importance of being moral. Just this past Sunday, well-known author and freethinker Susan Jacoby wrote an excellent editorial in the New York Times, titled Sick and Tired of “God Bless America” that I think you all should read – along with the following blog post. It’s an essay written by a TCP member who tackled the subject last October. It is reprinted with permission.

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By Jim Mulholland

Sometimes I’m surprised by the incongruities in what I once believed, by inconsistencies I was unable to previously see. For example, a Christian friend recently posted a meme with these words, “The true test of character is what you do when no one is watching.” I remember liking that statement when I was Christian, but reading those words as a post-religious person made me laugh. It suddenly occurred to me that – if those are words are true – no Christian has ever had their character tested.

Think about it. One of the central tenets of Christianity is that God is all seeing and all knowing. There is no place where a human can act without God watching and judging. Indeed, the purpose of God’s watchfulness is to determine whether our actions should be rewarded or punished. Growing up, I was encouraged to behave because God was watching and I didn’t want to disappoint. I was told that one day – when I arrived at the judgment seat of God – the angels would roll the film of my life and every misdeed would be replayed on some heavenly screen for all to see.

Since this understanding permeates Christianity, it is difficult to see how any Christian could ever know what they’d do if no one was watching. For that matter, what would they do without the expectation of reward or the threat of punishment?

How could they truly know if their morality was a veneer intended to impress or a deeply held conviction? For the Christian, the true test of character is what they would do if God doesn’t exist.

Ironically, the common Christian judgment of atheists and agnostics tells us much about the answer to that question. Often, I’ve been asked if – as an atheist – I’ve abandoned my morality. I understand the source of this suspicion. I was taught that morality had its source in God and those who were without God were inherently immoral. The Bible warned that without God, “every man would do what he thought right in his own eyes.”

Of course, all of this implies that Christians are only moral because of the threat of divine punishment and the promise of divine reward, that Christians assume the immorality of an atheist because they secretly worry about how they would act if not for the watchfulness of God. Their suspicion of the atheist is simply the projection of their own fears. Looking back, I once shared that anxiety

Years ago, long before I left religion, my oldest son came home from college and asked to talk with me. He told me he’d become an atheist, that he loved and respected me, but could no longer ascribe to a belief in god. At the time, I was concerned. I responded, “Well, I hope this doesn’t change how you live and act in the world.” He responded, “Dad, what is more admirable? That you do good in expectation of God’s reward, or that I do good without any expectation?” That conversation was one of the many contributing factors to my eventual departure from religion.

As a post-religious person, I’ve revised my understanding of morality. I’ve realized there is a significant difference between religiosity and morality. Religiosity is that which you do because your religious community says it will please God. Religiosity often includes many of the great moral convictions of humanity, but it can also contain the trivial and even the immoral. The religious sometimes do the heinous because their ultimate question is not whether an action is moral, but whether or not that action is sanctioned by God. Religious codes and moral dictates are not synonymous.

For example, consider the Ten Commandments that many Christians want posted in classrooms and on courthouse lawns.

They defend it as a moral declaration rather than a religious one. However, only four of the commandments are widely held moral codes – do not murder, do not lie, do not steal and do not commit adultery. The majority of the commandments are religious codes that trumpet Christian theology – the Christian god is supreme, no idols, no cursing god, and no working on the Sabbath. These set of codes have little to do with morality. Indeed, even most Christians wouldn’t argue that working on Saturday is immoral.

Morality is something very different than religiosity. Its source is unapologetically human. It is the consensus opinion of humanity on what is appropriate human behavior. As such, it is relative, shifting as humanity debates and negotiates what it means to be good. It is never absolute; always open the challenge of the minority voice, to further knowledge, or to new experience. Finally, this corporate formation of morality assumes each individual is a free moral agent. Every person doing what is right in their own eyes is not dangerous; it is necessary. The important question is not what God says. It is always what you and I say.

Today, I often hear proclamations of doom for America and a call for a return to our religious roots. Politicians and preachers warn that our country is descending into immorality and debauchery. They identify the rejection of religion and its mores as the end of civilization. I don’t see it that way. I think our nation is finally experiencing the freedom and liberty described by Abraham Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address. We are becoming a government of the people, by the people and for the people. We’re throwing off the shackles of religiosity and exploring what we will do now that no one is watching.

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Jim Mulholland spent twenty-five years as a pastor. He wrote several best selling Christian books and spoke nationally. In 2008, he resigned when his faith faltered. After several years of transition, Jim published the book Leaving Your Religion and began writing a blog on becoming post-religious. You can read more of Jim’s story and reflections atLeavingYourReligion.com.

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