Thomas Jefferson On Christianity & Morality

#ThomasJefferson On #Christianity & #Morality
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“I have observed, indeed, generally, that while in #protestant countries the defections from the Platonic Christianity of the priests is to #Deism, in #Catholic countries they are to #Atheism. #Diderot, #D'Alembert, #D’Holbach, #Condorcet, are known to have been among the most #virtuous of men. Their virtue, then, must have had some other foundation than the love of #God."
[Letter to #ThomasLaw, 13 June 1814]”
― Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

[@MrLourie]

Faith/Religion and Morality, are exclusive of each other. Normally, faith/religion are absent of any true morality, just forced, and fake, ethics and virtues, fashioned to fit the small minded, and ignorant populace. True morality comes from the intellect of those who possess principles and integrity outside of the mind control of any cult, whether established and accepted, or not.

[@gurugeorge]

The argument that morality is "dependent on" religion has force at a statistical level, i.e. it just so happens that religions generally support moral ideas, and most people are religious, and pass moral behaviour on to their children. To that extent, it's true that religion is a force for good in the world, and should be honoured as such (i.e. atheists are wrong to try and "destroy" religion - it can safely be left in peace, so long as there's separation of Church and State).
However, it's not at all true that morality depends in any way upon religion for justification, or for its "foundation" in any number of senses, to such an extent that a world of atheists would have no reasons to behave morally.
While morality cannot be derived _syllogistically_ from facts (the force of Hume's "is/ought" distinction), that's actually not very important; a similar line of argument would show that it can't be derived syllogistically from anyone's _command_ either, including God's.
There are two things at issue:
1) is there any form of argument that can convince an evil person to mend their ways? and
2) is there any form of argument that can reinforce morality in people who already subscribe to it somewhat?
To 1) we must answer "no" - the only thing that can convince an evil person to mend their ways is fear of punishment, whether now or in some purported hereafter. There is no philosophically justificatory argument that will convince them.
To 2) we must answer "yes" - if you understand the background of how morality evolved, then if you have some empathy already, that line of thought will reinforce and justify (in the non-philosophical sense of justify) your continuing to behave morally. Most people have some empathy. (As with all natural traits, there's a bell curve - some have a lot, the "saints", some have little to none, the "sharks", and most of us are inbetween, having some.)
You don't need the religious justification to do this, and religious justification is in fact slightly weaker. As above said, divine command is no better a syllogistic foundation than fact, even if God exists; while on the other hand the same fear of divine punishment will certainly work for the person who's already somewhat good, as it does for the evil person, but that's hardly a philosophically interesting result. The best reinforcement of morality is to appeal to whatever degree of empathy a person already has, and to point out the inconsistency in having a moral sense and not following reasonable moral "oughts". (Or: if you _have_ a sense of empathy, there's no good reason to go against it by behaving immorally.)