[triad]

Quote by: Alive Bacon, you act like religion and "society" are separable, but this is a modern idea: secularism. The law codes of old were essentially secular legal codes imbued with religious meaning; society and culture/religion are inherently connected.

Through the evolution of mankind, however, there seems to be those that disagree with religion. So I don't think that society in general is connected to religion, but individual intellect creates the path of either religious or not. I am not religious, but I do not steal, kill, etc... So connecting religion to "morals" would be valid only in cases of extreme subjectivity.

The social nature of human beings IS to be religious. Only in modern times have we found replacements for religion which serve similar functions (though I think many of these replacements aren't actually that different than their predecessors.

Hm, this kind of goes with the evolution of society, why have some ditched religion all together? I suppose it would be due to the irrationality behind its fictional proposals of creation of all that exists. I dont think, again, that culture is directly connected to religion because two people in the same culture could choose different religions. Its a matter of one's own subjective perspective, hence with the advancements in our understanding of the universe (may be small but significant nonetheless) some have realized religion may be outdated.

The fact that morality is intrinsic to the running of human societies does not imply that religion doesn't provide a moral basis for many humans. Morality is a natural tendency of human beings, but so is religion, so maybe there's a connection.

I would say religion WAS a natural tendency, which has been passed on generation to generation (a reason for the evolution within religion), and will slowly cease to exist. Like you said, it wasn't until recently small groups of humans have found alternatives to religion, possibly soon that will be the belief values of the majority - agnostic/atheism beliefs. If that happens, I simply don't see the morals of humanity also ceasing to exist, because they are based on instinct and not taught directly - otherwise they wouldn't exist at all. That is only true if you are not religious yourself, like me.