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I voted higher, but not because I think their morals are BETTER, just that they hold them to a higher place.
Most religious people believe some form powerful being set the morals they believe in place and fear that should they not follow them adequately, they will suffer eternal torment. This causes them to take their morals more seriously than others.
Now, the trouble with this question is it assumes all religions and all religious people are the same. You can have two people raised to be Lutheran, and have them both end up with very different ideas on right and wrong. Assuming both were raised to care for their religion quite a bit more than the average person however, they will still hold these morals to a high standard.
To clarify what I mean by a high standard, it means they feel their morals are superior in every imaginable way and that they could not live with themselves if they were to contradict them. This is not a critique on the validity of their morals, bare in mind I do not think universal morality truly exists, but only on how they personally view them. I feel the question is somewhat misleading.
Take ISIS for example; regardless of their ideas of morals being right or wrong, does anyone truly believe they don't hold their morals to a high standard? They obviously do, given they think they can kill those who don't follow them. This means that, to them, not abiding by the understanding of morality that ISIS has is so immoral that it warrants death. ISIS holds their morals to a very, I'd say unreasonably, high standard.
I have a very low opinion, generally speaking, of religious fundamentalists. They tend to be mean-spirited, judgmental, poorly-educated, boring and potentially - with gusts up to actually - dangerous.
I can tell you with absolute certainty that Christianity, at least, teaches a higher moral character. I've seen my own life change since becoming a Christian at age 20.
Having said that, I will also tell you that there are a LOT of hypocrites that claim to be a part of the religion and their life simply does not reflect it. Case in point, I know of someone that has been in a church for 20+ years and she is now living with her boyfriend. When a fellow member of the church heard it, her response was "That can't be....she's been a part of the church for 20 years! She knows that's not right!". She knew, and had been taught that it wasn't morally right....but she simply didn't care.
From my perspective, liberal Christians love to hate, too. They just hate different things. Instead of hating sin, they hate fundamentalist Christians.
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I have a very low opinion, generally speaking, of religious fundamentalists.
Obviously
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They tend to be mean-spirited, judgmental, poorly-educated, boring and potentially - with gusts up to actually - dangerous.
I would actually say the same thing of a lot of liberal Christians, and those that hate fundamentalists.
From my perspective, liberal Christians love to hate, too. They just hate different things. Instead of hating sin, they hate fundamentalist Christians.
Obviously
I would actually say the same thing of a lot of liberal Christians, and those that hate fundamentalists.
How does one define fundamentalism?
See, just saying a 'literal reading of X' doesn't cut if for me. I have no doubt Mother Teresa was a fundamentalist, if that is indeed the definition, and I don't think I feel comfortable making such a claim.
I define fundamentalism as the absolute rejection of all outside ideas. This allows for literal reading of whatever you want, but only that. In short, someone who believes the Bible is literally true in it's moral values, but also has a great deal of respect for other religions or ideas is not really a fundamentalist in my book. But a group like ISIS that rejects the option to be anything other than Muslim is.
Anyone who holds this view point is a fundamentalist. Obviously, one does not have to be as extreme as ISIS, but if they reject all outside thought, they are fundamentalists. And those who reject all outside thought tend to not be the most loving or thoughtful of individuals; indeed, hateful is typically quite an accurate word.
I think most Christians tend to describe it as someone more conservative than themselves.
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See, just saying a 'literal reading of X' doesn't cut if for me. I have no doubt Mother Teresa was a fundamentalist, if that is indeed the definition, and I don't think I feel comfortable making such a claim.
I define fundamentalism as the absolute rejection of all outside ideas. This allows for literal reading of whatever you want, but only that. In short, someone who believes the Bible is literally true in it's moral values, but also has a great deal of respect for other religions or ideas is not really a fundamentalist in my book. But a group like ISIS that rejects the option to be anything other than Muslim is.
Anyone who holds this view point is a fundamentalist. Obviously, one does not have to be as extreme as ISIS, but if they reject all outside thought, they are fundamentalists. And those who reject all outside thought tend to not be the most loving or thoughtful of individuals; indeed, hateful is typically quite an accurate word.
I think when it comes down to it, most of us are pretty fundamentalist in what we believe. You may believe your religion has all the answers...or that all religions have validity. But you're usually going to be quite fundamentalist in your stance on that--believing it to be true.
I get called names, and told I'm a hater by some of the most mean-spirited people on this board. They would not call themselves "fundies"...but they are quite sure I'm wrong and they are right.
I think most Christians tend to describe it as someone more conservative than themselves.
Lol....I think there might just be some room for agreement among us all yet.
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I think when it comes down to it, most of us are pretty fundamentalist in what we believe. You may believe your religion has all the answers...or that all religions have validity. But you're usually going to be quite fundamentalist in your stance on that--believing it to be true.
I get called names, and told I'm a hater by some of the most mean-spirited people on this board. They would not call themselves "fundies"...but they are quite sure I'm wrong and they are right.
Fundamentalism wouldn't be so bad if those books were just not so darn wrong.
I said lower, I've met a lot of very religious people who tend to ignore any personal ideals for having morals, and instead just hide behind religion and take the easy road of saying that's their moral basis. The more religious they are the more some will take truly unmoral grounds on issues and say they're actually being moral because "it's in the bible". They're blind to how hateful and intolerant they're being while somehow convincing themselves they're on the right side because of crap they read in some book.
I can tell you with absolute certainty that Christianity, at least, teaches a higher moral character. I've seen my own life change since becoming a Christian at age 20.
Having said that, I will also tell you that there are a LOT of hypocrites that claim to be a part of the religion and their life simply does not reflect it. Case in point, I know of someone that has been in a church for 20+ years and she is now living with her boyfriend. When a fellow member of the church heard it, her response was "That can't be....she's been a part of the church for 20 years! She knows that's not right!". She knew, and had been taught that it wasn't morally right....but she simply didn't care.
Here is the secret to maintaining a higher moral character, catch somebody committing a sin that you that you have yet commit, then assemble some fellow church members to quietly let them in on the ungodly sin you witnessed. You can judge and condemn, yet still appear to have great moral fiber. The trick is find a sin that you haven't committed. Until you have mastered the art of righteous condemnation, go for the sins that are easy pickings, like unwedded co-habitations (see above example) or homosexuals.
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