by Adam Birmingham

Created on: July 06, 2010

For the vast majority of known human history, especially in civilized societies, a person's "goodness" has not been judged by the quality of their character or by their kindness to others, but instead by their devoutness to a deity, or deities, and to wherever there kingdoms resided. Today, however, we are lucky enough to live in a more open minded and accepting society, and can now comprehend what "goodness" really is and how it relates (and differs) from not only religion, but humanity in general.

Before someone can judge the differences between being good and being religious, they would have to have an understanding of what being good is. Although there are no "official" guidelines for being good, there is something of a general consensus of things good people should do: Being kind, a pretty broad generalization, I know, but keep in mind there are plenty of ways of being kind, whether you donate old clothes or money to the poor, or making brownies for neighborhood kids just because you think they could use a treat, it doesn't matter just so long as it shows some kind of compassion. A thirst for justice is also often attributed to "good" people, however, it is a thin line between being righteous or zealous as opposed to being justified, the point of doing justice in a situation should not be more about "an eye for an eye" than it should be about showing the offender in question who the better person truly is. Selflessness is probably the most acclaimed and important quality found in a "good" person. Being selfless is being able to sacrifice something that you care for or find useful in order to help someone else, and like the other two qualities, this can vary in the scale of a problem, whether it's giving someone your sandwich because they don't have their lunch or it's running into a burning building to save a little girl.

The people of the book (Islam, Judaism, Christianity) each have some testament that dictates their moral behavior. The Islamic people have the five pillars, though most dictate the necessary life style (daily prayer, fasting, pilgrimage to Mecca,) although one does state that there is obligatory donations to the poor and disabled, however, this is mandatory and is not always sincere. Judaism has the ten commandments, which while forbidding evil actions such as killing or adultery it does not mean the person is necessarily good. Christianity follows the ten commandments as well, but also has the "golden rule"(Do unto others...) which is something like the Buddhist karma, if you do good things, good things will happen to you. Keep in mind, however, that if someone does something only from the motivation of a promise of eternal paradise as opposed to someone who does the right thing only because it is the right thing to do, then who is the better person?

The bottom line is while religion can be a good modifier and motivation for doing the right thing, there are still "good" people in the world who have no ties whatsoever. In the end a person could be one or the other, both, or neither, however a person should not be "good" because they have to be, a good person should be good simply because it's the right thing to be, and they should not need an "eternal paradise" in order to comprehend that.

Learn more about this author, Adam Birmingham.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.