Paul Kurtz is the chairman and founder of the Center for Inquiry and the Editor-in-Chief of FREE INQUIRY Magazine. He is also a prolific author. Kurtz is featured in a Washington Post article entitled, “Belief in God Essential for Moral Virtue?” This is a succinct article that is well worth reading. Kurtz goes to lengths to stress that lack of a God-based moral system does not mean “anything goes.” Here’s an excerpt:
To say that a person is moral only if he or she obeys God’s commandments–out of fear or love of God or a desire for salvation–is hardly adequate. Ethical principles need to be internalized, rooted in reason and compassion. The ethics of secularism is autonomous, in the sense that it need not be derived from theological grounds. Secular humanists are interested in enhancing the good life both for the individual and society.
Today, a new imperative has emerged: an awareness that our ethical concerns should extend to all members of the global community. This points to a new planetary ethics transcending the ancient religious, ethnic, racial, and national enmities of the past. It is an ethic that recognizes our common interests and needs as part of an interdependent world.
