Faith

Rebutting faithlessness:

A moral deed is by definition its own reward. David Hume, a believer, made this point in a very poignant way, when he wrote that the only way to show true respect for God is to act morally while ignoring God's existence.

It seems easy to believe that removing religion, living in an existential state, will permit the population to behave in ways concordant with harmony. After all, atheists are thought to be at their kindest when they fully embrace a godless existence. It is not about godlessness leading to freedom to harm others, but that without any moral yardstick, the last thing we can thereafter embrace is kindness to others.

I have known one person who believe in a world without a single iota of morality. He sincerely believes that two men can have sex at a family restaurants with hundreds of children and that act cannot be called immoral. It can be called unsafe because bodily fluids can have disease. But trying to say that sex in this setting is "tactless," "grandiose," or "stupid" leads him to tear apart the very fabric of that argument by saying, "Don't lecture me about tactlessness, choice of people, or stupidity because it's defined by religion or morality that is completely relative, and therefore irrelevant to the discussion at hand."

I don't know whether moving everyone toward godlessness will succeed in removing what is a human constant: stupidity.