I think one of the big questions in our society is whether or not you can be a good person without God (or religion). Though this is often phrased as a yes or no question, the answer is much more complex.

Trent Horn touches on this topic in his book God from the 20 Answers series (book review here). He explains that though we can be moral/good people without religion, Morality doesn’t make sense without God. We can’t say that morality comes from evolution. Though it explains why we do what we do (moral people were able to survive better), it doesn’t explain why we should do what we do.

We also can’t say that our morality is based on a consensus because that would mean some of the atrocities we’ve seen in our history were just event from people with different ideas, not immoral ones, as they were simply going along with what the majority of people felt at the time. He digs a little deeper into these arguments and addresses a little more, but ultimately concludes that “one can be a good person without believing in God, but without God, goodness itself loses its meaning.”

I think Trent Horn’s explanation is excellent and could certainly stand on its own, but I think there is another aspect worth considering: our Purpose on earth. You might be kind, moral, caring, compassionate, and everything else that goes into our understanding of what makes a person good without being religious. However, while all of these are valuable characteristics and absolutely necessary for the sake of humanity, they ignore our actual purpose as people.

Simply put, the entire reason for our existence is to know, love, and serve God. If this is our purpose, our entire reason for living, are all our good deeds enough to fill the gap of rejecting our true purpose for existence?

Let’s say a student is given a scholarship to be on a track team. His purpose in that particular role is to be the best racer he can be. It doesn’t matter how well he runs if he doesn’t follow the track or doesn’t run towards the finish line. He may demonstrate remarkable abilities as a runner, but he is not fulfilling his purpose as a racer which is his purpose for being on that team.

So the answer to “can you be a good person without religion?” hinges on what you define as “good”.

If we’re basing the answer entirely on kindness, compassion, generosity, etc., yes, you can absolutely be a good person without religion. I’m positive there are atheists out there who are kinder, more patient, more compassionate, more generous or more likable than me. I am sincerely grateful they share that goodness with the world.

However, if that is how we choose to define goodness, we are disregarding the most important aspect of our lives: our purpose to be eternally united with God. If we reject that beautiful gift, it doesn’t matter how good we are because we are falling short of the best thing we can be: beloved daughters and sons of God.