Serious question- why do you think that an individual requires religion to have moral standards (if you do)?

Religion is not required for moral standards ! What is required is to live by the the adage "Do to others a you would have others do to you" End of story.

If you do not have an authority for what is right and wrong that comes from outside your self, then how can you decide if something is right or wrong? I know of at least one atheist who expressed that is was wrong for a particular woman to refuse to have sex with him. He was very angry about this decision of hers. I asked him how his wife probably felt about the fact that this other woman was even given such a choice. He threatened to hurt me over the question. To him, none of this was wrong because all that mattered to him was getting his desires fulfilled.

And he is not alone. I have heard a few atheist women who said that even though they would not like their husbands doing what Tiger Woods did, at least he was not a hypocrite like he would be if he were a Christian. (Yes, then happened during the time women were coming out of the woodwork saying the slept with Tiger.) They justified his actions based on the idea that he had no standard that he was violating.

When I was single, an atheist woman asked me to sleep with her. When I said "but you are married." She responded with "So, we haven't had sex in months."

I have known many atheists and even the "moral" ones are situational where the ends justifies the means in the end.

It all goes back to what people believe how the world is created. If you believe in God/ creation, He is the one who first said what is right/wrong. (See the creation story- tree of knowledge). People believe have to be told what is good and bad. If you don't agree with this, just think: 2 year olds. They are not "naturally good". They need to be reprimanded when they do something bad (hit, disobey, etc). If they aren't punished they become bratty.

If people believe this world came about as a result of an accident, who do they have to be accountable to? Why should they obey laws? What if they *think* stealing is okay for some reason? (See Proverbs 21:2)

IDK I hope that helps. That's just what I think, anyway. :)

Here is how the argument goes. IF we evolved then Morality is subjective to ones own personal beliefs, topics like murder are also subject to personal belief like a moving target open for debate. If we were created by a God who Gave us rules to live by ,like do not kill then the moral standard is stationary not open for debate.

We don't need religion to tell us what's right and wrong. Anyone with common sense can figure out what hurts people and what doesn't.

Religions that impose morality actually make things worse, in my opinion. Have you ever noticed that when religious people give beastiality as an example, they just say it's wrong because it's immoral? It doesn't even seem to register to them that it hurts the animal. It's just wrong because it's wrong for them. This is a very inferior basis for morality.

I believe this stems from the believe that apart from God's Moral Law Code we are left with human opinion about it.

I am not a religious person, I follow Jesus who is my LORD God and Creator Savior. We all need Jesus to save us no matter how good we thin we are. Because if you break even one law then you are a law breaker. We cannot make it by law. The laws show us how sinful we are, Jesus can free us from our sins.

well? i can answer this question from several perspectives.

but often i get lost in following all things i want and desire to answer.

first perspective, without religion and true worship of God in spirit. we dont have all the higher morals that faith and even fear will instill upon our hearts.

even with higher morality, some people become radical murderers. atheists lack all higher morality. because even now, there is a movement in the western societies where athteists are becoming true hatemongers, just like they did in Nazi Germany, higher morality is shown when government works with people and people will feed their neighbors instead of kill them for food, when there is a seige of nations and food stops moving. the united nations is right now beseiging the united states.

people without religion are the first to devolve into hunter prey mentalities. with leadership that worships God, mankind lives together in peace. without God mankind reverts to predatory practices to kill competitive tribes.

we need religion as structure to teach righteousness and faith, we need teacher to teach Love and unity. we dont need people without morality making decisions of government or pretending to be prophets of God when they are false leaders. see the movie Red State

You don't need religion to have morals, I got saved as an adult. I didn't have faith growing up however I still knew it was wrong to steal, lie and cheat on exams. I still knew that murder was wrong and that you treat animals with respect even those who are ultimately on our dinner plates.

We are born with certain natural affections that help guide us, society helps determine what's appropriate and so do our parents. Religion does change our morals though.

That is totally wrong, everyone can have moral standards, the argument is regarding where these morals came from..

Christians believe that God provided us with the moral codes we keep, atheists believe that the moral codes came about via environmental interactions..

Religion flies in the face of morality most of the time.

Ethics are more applicable.

Nobody requires religion to have good ethics. In fact, most very religious do not have good ethics. They seem to think that their god thing makes them exempt from proper laws.

Religions are dishonest at their core. they offer very little that is good, and a lot that isn't.