As a former student of fifteen years in a Catholic school system (preschool through high school) I am not one bit ashamed to say that I think that we as a society can be good without God. Years of my life have been spent learning about what being a good Catholic is and then practicing just that through attending mass, fulfilling sacraments and treating everyone as if they were Jesus. Yet, as soon as I was away from the everyday routine of morning prayers and weekly mass I didn’t feel any kind of void in my life. Does that mean that I’m bad?
Religion can be a very touchy subject to some. Personally, I avoid the topic of conversation at all costs. There is absolutely no way that I could convince a person of faith that we could be good without God, period. I wouldn’t even bring up this subject at a Bible study of people with the same faith beliefs. My reason, simple – faith is a personal subject. While yes, everyone gathered at a Bible study might be there because they are members of the same religious group, but you’re still sure to touch a nerve when asking a controversial question. Each person will defend their own opinion, Bible verse references and all, and the conversation is sure to get heated. Religion may provide the foundation or outline for how to live a “good” life, but ultimately it is the individual who makes their own choices.
Can we make good choices without “asking God” first? I sure think so. It’s not like even the most devout Catholic spends time to consult with God on every single decision they make, big or small. I don’t think that the 52% of non believers in the United Kingdom can be doing all that bad (Beedles 65). I was fascinated to see the statistics of religious people in countries other than America. Here we are so immersed in the idea of belonging to a religious denomination that we just assume that everyone at least has roots in some form of religion. Yet, as a country, they seem to be doing fine over in the United Kingdom. Crime, violence and rape rates are drastically different than those in the “Bible Belt” America.
I’m not going to go as far as saying that I think that I’m good without God. I was raised with traditional Catholic beliefs and that has made a big impact on who I am today. However, I don’t think that without those particular teachings I would be a bad member of society. Somewhere along lines I would have learned right from wrong and made decisions based on what someone else thought I should do (government, family, organizations etc.). Everyone has their own opinion of how everyone else should act and usually they’re willing to share with anyone.
*Maybe this doesn’t have anything to do with the prompt of being good without God or not, but I was really intrigued to read that Brad Pitt was agnostic and atheist. When asked about religion he said "I don't think anyone really knows. You'll either find out or not when you get there, and then there's no point thinking about it." I’ve thought a lot about that quote. Maybe he has a point? So many people spend their entire life trying to model a “perfect”
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