Good without god? No problem.

Andrew Copson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association and first VP of the IHEU, has a good post on Politics.co.uk discussing the results of a recent poll regarding religion amongst 18-24 year-old’s in Britain. As we’ve seen previously in the RDFS data, religion is generally in decline in the UK – and as I remarked at the time, we’re also seeing a significant shift in what people mean when they say they are religious.

Copson observes: “Damningly, 41% said that religion is more often the cause of evil in the world than of good, with just 14% saying the opposite. But has this led to the feared moral vacuum? The survey suggests not – just that young people get their morality from elsewhere.”

As they should, of course – and as they always have, as Plato demonstrated with Euthyphro’s dilemma. Copson’s post is a heartening signal that the youth are managing to unshackle themselves from the explicit connection that their parents, and wider society, have typically drawn between religion and morality. That’s good news.