Morality and Religion
I once was asked what reason there is to do good things without belief in God. After reading a book on western moral philosophy, I have found that there are many different theories that attempt to explain human behavior. My earlier post included a summary of the behavior theory of Buddhism. (Once I stripped away the religious lingo, it became a rather scientific outline, to me.)
I like that the ten states of Buddhism serve to categorize human behavior, and also to place those categories in a hierarchy. The lowest in the order are those which cause the greatest harm to society, and to yourself. Behaviors ranked higher are encouraged because they create more value, and temper the lower behaviors with wisdom and experience.
So, on the simplest level, killing people and doing harm to society will eventually cause you to suffer. If a man or woman is strong in youth, but alienates society though evil actions, during sickness and old age, who will help them? Even a human with the most selfish ego will see benefit in modifying their behavior to foster good will in society.
Through the ages, I think that humanity has evolved mentally. Some people still show signs of barbarity, a fact that I am reminded of daily. Others are just naturally more philosophical and less ruled by baser behaviors. Humanity in general is better educated and more aware of the world today than 2000 years ago. We are less likely to be impressed by mystical and magical explanations of life. What is religion but magical theories of the complexities of life and human behavior?
Four thousand years ago, give or take 500 years, Judaism and Buddhism began to take shape. Initially they were both a series of instructions, rules for successful societies. Most people were unable to read, and stupid to boot. Hardly anyone thought about consequences to society for their actions. So the more enlightened people of the day played on superstition and wrote out rules, to be orated to the others. Jewish writings were clear; don't do this, or you will be damned eternally; do this, and God will bless you. Ancient writings from Buddhism are similar, except that the rewards and penalties differed. The people didn't need to know why they couldn't do something, only that it was forbidden. Few would have understood why anyway.
Roughly two millennia later, both Jewish and Buddhist thought began to change. Jesus brought the idea of atonement and forgiveness to the Jews, creating a new religion, Christianity. Buddhists divided their teachings into two schools; one stuck with the old rules, the other encouraged attaining enlightenment in this lifetime. To me, this signals two similarities - people began to want to know why the old rules were made, and they questioned the idea of being eternally responsible for the actions of earlier humanity. Surely there is a way to change your destiny! Jesus and the new-age Buddhists both said yes, with slightly different methods. The main is that humanity was mentally evolving, and could no longer be contented with the old rules alone.
Today, we are even more evolved, and the trappings of religion are again feeling too inadequate for modern thought. Most Christians do not accept every teaching in the Bible, and can not decide whether to disregard some of them, or to insist they be followed. Buddhism required large amounts of time to be dedicated to ceremonies and chanting, which makes many forms of the religion difficult to follow in our modern world. Buddhist variants like Nichiren Buddhism have come about as a reformation that fits better with modern life, and hopefully Christians have a similar solution.
I believe that human thought is evolving, and that old superstition and mystical mumbo-jumbo is insufficient for us. We are highly rational and analytical beings, something which religion is not suited for. To me, it seems that religion came from human morality, not the other way around. Moral questions should be considered by our inherent human natures, not by referring to ancient rules developed to control stupid people who couldn't understand the morality behind those rules.
