Does Ethics Come From Religion?

It is often said by religious people that ethics comes from religion. My atheist friends get their fur all ruffled up that that statement, and so this was my response in one discussion:

I'll probably surprise you by saying that I do NOT think that our ethics come from religion. Not our base nature to do good. Rather, I think there is a lot of our morality that comes innately, from our adult minds, no matter who we are, or what culture we live in.

As we become mature adults, we realize not only that other people exist, but that they are the equal to ourselves. That our brothers, sisters, friends, boy/girlfriends, spouses, and co-workers are the equivalent of ourselves. And that is the essence of morality, the basic moral principle that exists in almost every ethical system-- that others need to be treated in the manner in which we wish to be treated, because (the basic ethical realization) they are the same as us.

Now, this logic, for most of us, only goes this far. We have people that we treat as equals and then people that we treat as non-equals. For some, we treat people as more than us-- celebrities, politicians, etc-- while others we treat as less than us-- children, the developmentally disabled, our parent with Alzheimer's. Anyway, the liberal will give lip service to the fact that everyone has basic rights and should be treated equally. Some don't feel that it is necessary. But the morally progressive person will look at the other for who they are and try to meet their social and possibly physical needs in as much as is socially acceptable.

In morality, the best of religions or ethicists will guide one in relationships to do that which is the best for all concerned. However, this usually requires reason, because morality requires context, while most religions only give rules. And rules are not the best way to determine morality.

And honestly, this is one of the reasons I hang my hat with Jesus, because he recognized the flexibility of situations and so gave principles instead of rules. And, in fact, one of his principles is that any law-- religious or otherwise-- is to be marginalized if it harms another person. It is why I do not accept most Christian dogma, because, in the end, it hurts people by its rigidness, and tends to look at people in boxes, rather than listening and appreciating them for who they are. I am absolutely firm that Jesus has never promoted that.

So where is God in this? Well, I believe God created us, and so established a certain kind of morality within us (as well as gave Jesus to direct it). An atheist can hold that the morality is the end process of a long line of compromises, but as long as they are humanitarian in focus-- as Hitchens is-- then I'm okay with that.

What bothers me is when he calls the New Testament "immoral", because he is ultimately calling me, who tries to live my life following the principles of that document, immoral for doing so. That is the equivalent of me calling an atheist "immoral" because they are an atheist, which I have never done. I would appreciate it if he would return the favor. Just because his, non-scholarly, interpretation of the text is immoral doesn't make the text so.

Okay, rant over. I spend a lot of time thinking about ethics, so it just comes out. Trust me, this one was short.