Because I don’t pray, nor imagine some invisible alpha watching over me, I am free to live in a state of hedonistic anarchy.  Yah, right.  The reality: I have inner, pro-social, drives.  Call them “voices” if you must personify.  I have a conscience, in other words.  This conscience no doubt originated in my parents’ teachings about right and wrong, which I internalized.

Actually, it probably originated before that, in the instincts I genetically acquired that allow me as a social animal to live harmoniously with groupmates.  Certainly the applause and condemnation of peers, real or imagined, also plays a role.  As do other factors.

A fear of hell, because I thoroughly lack it, has nothing to with my squeaky-clean driving record.  Likewise, a pledge to obey a set of religious commandments exerted no influence over the love, loyalty and fidelity I have shown my wife in the two-plus decades we’ve been married.

If morality were simply belief-deep, Christians would have the lowest divorce rate in our land.  They don’t.   If behaving well were simply a matter of reading and reciting words in a book, Christians would be convicted of crimes at a lower rate than non-believers.  They aren’t.  So please, keep the nonsense about religion being necessary for an upright life to yourself.  There’s no truth to it.  But that’s not surprising, for we are talking about mere matters of faith.

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