Is there a reason to believe in morality while not being religious?

Just read Kant

I believe that morality exists in the ability to empathize with others' feelings. As human being, you could at least, to some extent, understand the feelings others may experience during an undesirable event.

Imagine if someone were to kill and rob another person. You'd feel bad for that person, right? Even if you're not a particularly religious person, you understand that murder is an inherent evil thing to do. By understanding that you do not want that to happen you, you are unwilling, or at least less likely, to inflict that pain onto someone else.

Doing good things for other people feels good. If this is not true for you, you're a defective human being and should kill yourself immediately.

There's no reason to believe in morality while being religious. Why do you think Islamic State is a thing?

You hedonistic swine!

I try to act morally but I can't justify acting morally morally.

They still believe in morality retard. That's kinda their whole thing

Nope. Islamic State terrorists have an ethic, but no morality. Their ethic (i.e. personal conduct) is based on total submission to the word of God. There is no internal moral compass involved whatsoever in their ethical actions.

Now there's a fair point to be made that all (at least all Abrahamic) believers would act the same if they were consistent. But no-one seriously believes in God anymore in the developed world, not even the religious.

tl;dr: read Nietzsche

Yes, but if you want your basis for morality to make sense and be coherent you need to be an aristotelian.
Metaphysical basis is necessary.

there's no reason not to either.

Social Contract Theory works pretty well for that. Perhaps you're a sociopath though.

That assumes that morality doesn't exist as a natural compass within humans, but that invalidates your necessity for a moral lawgiver, unless you define that lawgiver as non-human.

The problems of morality are rarely in daily life the big crimes like murder, rape, burning down of houses and so on.
Feeling bad doesn't in any way imply inherent wrongness and understanding that in no way leads to the conclusion that one will avoid certain evils.
If you base it on feelings, it will depend on the person who may or may not feel something for a particular case.
The enlightenment project is a total failure and Kant won't help you much.
Alasdair MacIntyre is where its at friend.

moral things are often also beneficial to you, all you need is the right point of view(cynical and pragmatic)

To achieve freedom from suffering for yourself and others.

but what if it doesnt make me feel good?

>Is there a reason to believe in morality while not being religious?

Is there a reason to believe in morality while being religious?

After all God says that murder is wrong several times in the Bible, and then the next minute order his followers to do that exact same thing.

Stirner literally tears into a metric tonne of such systems.

These two are the only intelligent people in this thread

>The punishment is here on Earth, friendo

Someone post the Schopenhauer excerpt.

A significant percentage of the human population is defective in this way. Without religion or legal consequences, they have no motivation for doing good things or avoiding bad deeds. Just telling them to kill themselves isn't going to solve the problem.

>"Boy, that Mr Burns sure is intelligent!" - Mr Snrub

Whether God exists is a separate question from the one I posted. If he exists, there is real morality. If not, there is not.

>If he exists, there is real morality.

Why tho?

Nothing to stop an amoral God existing desu.

Virtue Ethics is the only ethical system that works on an individual level, and has proven durable from Aristotle through the majority of western philosophy. One of its main advantages is that it focuses on character - and the development of one's desirable character traits through habit - instead of adhering to absolute, abstract rules.

There has been an explosion of literature on the subject, and with it a revival and critical examination of many Aristotelian terms.
I would recommend reading Anscombe's influential essay "Modern Moral Philosophy" (1958), followed by the SEP article on Virtue Ethics. Then you can pick up some further reading if you're interested, like Julia Annas - her "Intelligent Virtue" is focused on outlining a modern conception of virtue and is overall an engaging read.
Or, another important work is MacIntyre's After Virtue.

philosophy.uncc.edu/mleldrid/cmt/mmp.html
plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-virtue/