morality/10 commandments

There is more to morality than faith

As a non-religious person, I constantly hear that atheists and other non-religious individuals are moral relativists or situational ethicists.
Yes, I agree that moral positions should be contingent on the situation. I believe that it is moral to shoot someone who is about to murder you. I do not think it is moral or ethical to kill in robbing a bank. I think, that the faithful religious individuals would agree with me on those situations. They would agree that, dependent on the situation, they would weigh competing issues. Indeed, most traditional absolute values folks would agree the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima was OK, because it saved more lives than it cost. But, ironically, only the secular left is called moral relativists while in truth both sides weigh moral judgments based on each situation.
The conservative Christian right often support the death penalty, which means the taking of a life (and a possibly innocent one even though convicted) and has no or little qualms over this moral relativism or situational ethics.
Morality is not the commands of a God or a religion -- it is the weighing of the possible actions of a situation and seeing which action one takes has the best possible consequence for all participants.
To appeal to religion for moral truths gives up the ability of one to examine what is an actual, good and just decision to make.


10 Commandments:

The Ten Commandments is in the news again with the recent Supreme Court case. The 10 Commandments I hear is the basis for our rights. Really? The first four prohibit worshiping other Gods, taking thy Lord's name in vain, honor the Sabbath and no graven images. These four Commandments if codified into law would violate the Establishment and Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. Government has no right in telling individuals who to worship and how to worship their God, if they have a God.
The Ten Commandments are prohibitions, not statements on rights. As rules to live by, moral rules long predated the Ten Commandments. All cultures have the same basic prohibitions on theft/murder. Why? Because it violates the universal "Golden Rule." This Rule is what we should base our laws/morals on.
Is the Ten Commandments a foundation for our system of government? Thomas Jefferson wrote "Christianity neither is, nor ever was, a part of the common law," in a letter to Thomas Cooper in 1814.
"The common law existed while the Anglo-Saxons were yet pagans, at a time when they had never yet heard the name of Christ pronounced or knew that such a character existed," Jefferson wrote in a letter to John Cartwright 1824. We should heed the wisdom of Mr. Jefferson once again.