Originally Posted by AndyJC

On slavery, religion and society are in congruence now, but not 200 years ago, religion only slowed the progress to abolition by providing a divine justification for the practice. Whereas at the present time religion and society are not congruent on homosexual rights and it will take religious people a generation to catch up as they will have to find some way of reconciling the anti-homosexual passages in the Bible with the obvious fact (to the rest of society) that it is plain wrong to discriminate against people because they are born homosexual. My point is that religion as derived from ancient texts is no help in determining right and wrong. The ancient texts can only hold you back. So the answer to the question "Is it possible to live a moral life without religion" is a resounding yes, in fact 'without religion' is a necessary (but, of course, not sufficient) requirement for a moral life. It is actually difficult to live a moral life if you are hampered by religion and adherence to ancient texts with a moral code applicable to conditions thousands of years ago.