Stephen Fry on Morality without God

Fry's entire public life is, in a sense, an argument for morality without God. As an openly gay, openly atheist public figure who has been a tireless advocate for human rights, mental health awareness, and artistic freedom, he embodies the possibility of a deeply moral life lived without religious belief. He has spoken frequently about the sources of his own moral commitments — empathy, literature, the example of others, the experience of suffering — and none of them require God.

He has argued that secular morality is not merely adequate but superior to religious morality, precisely because it is open to revision. When we discover that a moral practice causes harm — as we have with the persecution of homosexuals, the subjugation of women, or the corporal punishment of children — secular morality can correct itself. Religious morality, anchored to scripture and tradition, resists correction because its authority comes from an unchallengeable source.

Fry is careful to distinguish between religious people and religious morality. He has many religious friends and acknowledges that they are often exemplary moral agents. But he attributes their goodness to their humanity, not their theology. They are good not because of their religion but despite the parts of it that command intolerance and submission.