Morality from Scriptures?

"I distrusted people who claimed to know what God wanted, because it always seemed to line up really well with their own wishes." - Susan B. Anthony

It is often thought that when we talk about morality, it must come from an authority. For example, according to this theist, atheists hate the scriptures because they do not have any to call their own which could have served as their moral compass. 

To understand this issue we have to know what morality means first.

Morality is simply defined as the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior. Sounds simple, right? Well, that’s where it starts to get complicated, because people don’t always agree on what’s right and wrong.

I remember one of Mr. Poch Suzara's pamphlets which say that when people are doing something that will benefit himself and his society physically and mentally that can be considered as morally upright, while when he does something that will harm himself and his society physically and mentally, that is considered as immoral. That's morality in a nutshell. So, to think that morality is an effort to strive as much as possible for the well-being of sentient beings is a good definition. 

Also, moral behavior is not exclusive to humans. Apes in the wild have been observed doing things that would be interpreted as moral behavior, or at least the beginnings of moral behavior.

Moral development experts say most people figure out the ethical principles that make for a moral life not from holy books but through their own interactions with others — Yep, you get them while playing with other kids in the playground when you were still 4 years old. Your parents teach you to behave. You learn the rules of a game and other players expect you to abide them or you're out.

So, do I need an ancient book as a moral guide? Do I need to believe in the existence of a supernatural deity to work on it?

What Scriptures?

Then there's the problem of what scriptures will serve as my moral compass? 

Almost all religions have their own scriptures: The Jews have their Torah, the Christians have their Bible, and the Muslims have their Qur'an and so on...

With that, these scriptures have different "god-given decrees" that their adherents simply believed to be moral laws. 

So whose scripture should I follow? 

Until next time.