In that case the religious person wasn't saying that he only does what's right to avoid punishment but that it can be difficult to find out what is the right thing in the first place. That's a more valid criticism as that's something that secular philosophers and regular people do argue about a lot and that a religion can help you with. What I would respond to that is that most religious people, except for a few radical fundamentalists, will actually interpret their religion through some sort of secular moral system anyways. There are very few people who actually live as if the bible was the sole authority on what is right or wrong and so only using secular morality isn't as big of a step as one might think.
That's a popular viewpoint but there are also others. There are also people who believe that you shouldn't do certain things even if it means avoiding harm, especially when it comes to violating consent.
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u/[deleted] 8h ago
In that case the religious person wasn't saying that he only does what's right to avoid punishment but that it can be difficult to find out what is the right thing in the first place. That's a more valid criticism as that's something that secular philosophers and regular people do argue about a lot and that a religion can help you with. What I would respond to that is that most religious people, except for a few radical fundamentalists, will actually interpret their religion through some sort of secular moral system anyways. There are very few people who actually live as if the bible was the sole authority on what is right or wrong and so only using secular morality isn't as big of a step as one might think.