Religion and Moral Identity

Armando Teran Jr


Eng 215

8/23/10

Response 2

Can we be good without God? Before I answer this question I am going to provide a brief synopsis of the article written by Glen Tinder. The author Glenn Tinder discusses the issue of spiritual Christianity connecting to a political meaning. Tinder’s primary focus in his essay is to establish a connection between politics ideas and Christianity. He poses several different ideas and theories pertaining to the primary issue being discussed in his article. Glenn Tinder poses a question in his article, “Can we be good without God?” (Tinder 69). Tinder examines different aspects of Christianity. He primarily examines Christian love and morals along with the ideas of the so called exalted/fallen individual. For example the author writes “love seems distant as spiritually from politics, yet any discussion of the political meaning of Christianity must begin by considering love” (Tinder 70). Tinder claims that when Christians are involved in certain situations it should involve love. According to Tinder love is a priority for many Christians as well as morals. He goes on to discuss the relationship of love, morals and politics ideas with Christians.

We cannot be good without God. Two primary reasons for that are the world’s precepts would vanish and there would be no form of guidance concerning how a person should live their lives. There would be as much compassion or sympathy in the world. Life is meaningless without God according to the Christian bible. With this being said how can we be good without God? Tinder also points out that not all Christians are good people. For example he writes “Christians have supported almost every other common social evil” (Tinder 84). I’m not entirely sure what his motives are here claiming that not all Christians are good people. It would be difficult to live a life without God because there would not be a sense of guidance pertaining to how someone should live their life.

I feel that God gives individuals a sense of purpose and guidance along with morals. Without purpose, guidance and morals how would there be structure in the world. I really did not like Tinder’s attempt to establish a connection between the so called “spiritual and political” (Tinder 69). The reason for this dislike for his attempt is because I did not entirely understand everything that was trying to convey in his article. His article did provide some interesting information pertaining to political meaning in Christianity like love and the exalted/fallen individual. I would have to conclude that life is not good without God.