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| Secular Morality |
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A major theme in The Backslider's Guide To Success is the contention that religions have tended to assume
a monopoly of morality and have claimed that their moral codes are not man-made but the externally imposed
laws of some god.
Secular (or non-religious) morality is the idea that morality should be regarded as a set of rules for
living that represent the accumulated wisdom of the members of a particular society. They should give us
guidance on how to behave to maximise our chances of being happy and striking a
harmonious balance between the needs of the individual and the community. To ignore them is to throw away
the benefits of experience.
The Triax is an attempt to provide a basis for a secular morality and a major purpose of this website
is to encourage people to adopt it and to share their experiences of trying to put it into practice.
A distinguishing characteristic of the Triax is that it is very minimalist. It does not try to provide
detailed rules for every situation but claims to state some principles which,
if followed, allow us to come to good moral decisions.
There are a number of examples of codes for living, such as communism and fascism,
that are clearly secular but which claim to give much more comprehensive rules. These "-isms" can be
dangerous because, unlike the Triax, they lend themselves to the setting up
of some leadership who will determine the detailed rules in much the same way that some religions
have led to the oppression of vast numbers of people.
There is no cult of the Triax. Sheep looking for a shepherd (or butcher) should look elsewhere. It
encourages people to take personal responsibility for their morality and its development.
It does not claim to be "right"; it only claims to be useful. It is perfectly possible that other
more useful formulations of morality can be constructed and our sister website, www.secularmorality.org,
is devoted to the effort to encourage this.
Having a promising formulation of morality is not even half the battle, however.
To do any good we need to understand how people can be encouraged to adopt it and how we can ensure
that it is does not become owned by an organisation that wants to develop it into an instrument of
their power. If you are interested in these issues, you should
visit www.secularmorality.org .
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