Does Religion affect Morality?
Religion does not have to affect morality but it most definitely has proven to do so for the better and unfortunately for the worse,
when religion is practiced and given free rein over your emotions before you understand where these beliefs have actually come from, there is a path that can be taken that is not always the best to pursue,
believing that your religion is the best and only way to go through life is your choice taken by the use of your free will, but persecuting others and trying to force them to live as you do is a bad choice and is not a good moral decision,
if in all of your religious efforts you practice tolerance as the most important aspect of your beliefs, the rest of your religious experiences will be fruitful,
some of the scriptures speak of smiting unbelievers and have much fear and superstition driving their beliefs, this also must be recognized for what it is,
religions are based on what divinely inspired men have been shown which is usually succinct and not very wordy but man with his free will has a material based ego that needs to have its input and this is what has contaminated many of our scriptures,
it has caused wars and slaughter on a global scale and it needs to come under our conscience control by not letting our egos and emotions run our lives,
we know what is right, greed and power are not spiritually based ideas and have no place in a civilized world,
allowing others to practice their free will should be the base of all religions and as long as their free will does not interfere with other's free will things should go well.
A big problem with intolerance is that people have their beliefs and cannot understand why others do not believe as they do,
their ego's are not willing to accept anyone else's beliefs because they are not their own,
they believe this gives them the right to do things in God's name because they are doing God's work,
they do not believe that commandments apply to them and the end justifies the means,
their beliefs have been warped to their own myopic views, and emotions have taken power over their lives,
the strictness of rules that they have decided to enforce have removed any sort of tolerance from their beliefs,
Can Someone believe in God and still be a Taoist?
I like to keep an open mind but taking the position of judge, jury and executioner is going much too far and leaves very little room for redemption,
dying for your cause is usually the end result that is achieved while taking as many infidel unbelievers with them as possible,
when religion is taken as the tool that it was intended, morality should follow in an orderly manner,
get some beliefs and leave your emotions out of it, let others believe as they may and live and let live,
have some civilized discussions about your beliefs and practice the virtues instead of the sins and morality will be the result.