khjgjklñkjhDEFINITELY.. Yes

Let me explain before all the good people who are not religious jumps down my throat.

First, you ( all the good non religious people ) don’t have to abide by the rules of the society if you don’t want it to, but in my case, I have to, because I haven’t got a choice, otherwise people look down on me and also the God would be angry with me, which in turn, I have to have this standard and a benchmark even if I don’t like it. But in your case, you don’t have to please the God or the society either, thus you are all free from all the constrains of the moral code of conduct. BTW when I talk about society, I’m not talking about anything that is illegal but rather what is moral from society point of view.

When I was younger I used to trash the house when I knew my parents were away but at the end of the day, I always knew that I had to tidy it up before they came home. This is same as that.

So……. Yes, We are better people, because we take recommendation of the society in general, thus, better people then others.

HARRY

PS When you sumble, it’s a human thing not a religious thing. And I am sure a religious person doesn’t do it intentionally, well most of the time any how.

Ambaa

I don’t know, Harry, I think getting thrown in jail is a more frightening negative consequence than embarrassing yourself (having people look down on you)! I think all people have to abide by the rules of society.

Something my atheist friends have pointed out to me is that an atheist who is a good and moral person is making that choice freely. A religious person might be being good/compassionate/kind because of wanting to make other people think he is good at being religious. Then again, I suppose most human beings do want to be seen as good people by their peers.
Dorfl

Harry, I don’t intend to jump down your throat, but I would like to see some evidence that what you say is actually true. I mean, anyone can come up with a more or less plausible chain of reasoning for why people with belief X should be more moral than people with belief Y. It’s a very different matter to show that this is actually the case in the real world.
    HARRY

    @ Dorfl

    Maybe I didn’t explain it well.

    First, I am not comparing two different beliefs. What I am comparing is religious verses non religious person. I am not saying that they are imoral, but what I am saying is that they have choice in what they do, where as religious person doesn’t, and I will explain it to you why.

    Let me explain this differently, lets compare this with people who are either married or in relationship with the ones who are not, and you will clearly see the difference in what I am trying to say. The ones who are married cannot clearly behave like a free agent, where they are allowed to do what ever they like with whom ever they want, because all relationship are govern by the code of the conduct set by our society in general, where as a person who is not in a relationship does not have to follow the same code of conduct or the rules set by the same institute. I am only talking about in terms of sexual matter here, and nothing more, where there is no judgement involved on my part here. I am not saying that the ones who are not in relationship are bad people but rather what I am saying is that, the ones in relationship are govern by the institution which says that you have to have standard even if you don’t like it, and therefore must behave by the code set by them, thus having standard and more moral then the ones who simply don’t follow this system.

    By looking at the above example we can apply the same model on religious people verses non religious and that’s what I was trying to say in the previous post. Therefore we can say that religious person have no choice on certain matter, where as a free individual can behave in what ever manner they want . I know my answer is not politically correct, but that’s least of my problem, because some times the answer is not always the one that you and I like, and that’s the way things are.

    HARRY
        Dorfl

        Your explanation is good, but it doesn’t really address the objection I had. I mean, I could give a counterargument to what you said. For example

        “Most religions state that people have the choice of not obeying their god(s), but that this is the wrong choice to make. Similarly I, as an atheist, have the choice of not concerning myself with my fellow humans well-being, but doing so would also be wrong. So neither of us is a ‘free agent’ in any way that the other is not.”

        You could then give a counterargument to that, which I could give another argument against, and so on. The problem is that we’d both just be armchair philosophers bouncing arguments off each other. To actually resolve the question we have to look at the real world for evidence that either view is actually correct. That’s why I want to see some sort of evidence that religious people on average actually do act more morally, not just arguments for why they should do so.

Sandesh

Hi Amba,

I have been reading your blogs for a while now to be frank just started last evening :) but I feel like a while now… :P for religions do always get me thinking.

I will come straight to your question though… karmayogis need not be associated to any religion… and such people can be found in all religions… and even religious people can be karmayogis. It’s about what we perceive about the world and for that I do not need to love God or be scared of him I just want to be good. Even good upbringing can make you a karmyogi without being associated to any religion

So for me association to any religion need not make someone more moral than others…. more than that it’s the upbringing. A good upbringing can do more wonders than being associated to any religion. Religion has high chances of making you biased towards others…

And of course I agree with Jeramy as well :)

Ambaa