Religion and Moral Values

Modern philosophers argue that religion is not necessary for establishing a moral society and that the principles of morality can be provided through atheistic philosophical systems. But since the eighteenth century, when atheism became a powerful force in most advanced countries, all experiments for grounding moral values in atheistic philosophy have failed. There are two problems that any atheistic moral theory faces: first, such a moral theory is nothing but a religion without theological tradition (eg., communism and welfare liberalism); second, unless such a moral theory is backed by brute political power, people are not inspired to follow it.