Christianity is unique in that it does have a manual to follow and is a very leniant religion

Yes, I know that there are certain "morals" that naturally develop. But think about the natural development if you did not live in a societal group. If you were alone and isolated from other people, how would your morality develop? My point was that morality is developed from society. And yes, naturally, society considers murder wrong because murder disrupts society. All "rules" in society evolve naturally to make society function. BUT, there have been some societies that had human sacrifices. Technically that is murder. But, it was not considered wrong. So there are always exceptions.

To your second point, morality can be seen to "originate from God" because religion was used as a moral compass for so long. Before religion was even invented, morality already existed. I've already talked about it a bit above. I cannot say that morality does not or does originate from God because we don't know if God exists or not. And since religion (I would rather say religion than God because not all religions have a single God), was such a big part of human development over the ages, it undoubtedly helped shape morality today. Consider though a planet or society with NO religion. Do you not think that morals would still develop? You point to the theory of natural law... which is what I am trying to say. Society doesn't neccessarily NEED religion to give it morality.

If you study how lions interact in their social group, you will see that they have their own set of morals. Now, I am not a lion expert or anything but I don't think lions even have a concept of God (or religion). Do lions have a concept of the after life, sin, and do they ask "why are we here"? I don't think so (but I could be wrong). Despite not having religion, a pride of lions will have thier own set of "morals" in the way they interact with others in the pride. On a side note... some might argue that this is the reason why animals are animals, because we have God and they don't. God lifted us above animals... Though, would God even exist unless humans were able to think about him?

In the end, morality as it exists today is a mix of today's society and past religious beliefs. There is no possible way to seperate them unless someone could go back in time. To say that morality would not exist if there were no religion (or God) is premature. There is evidence that morality can exist without religion (in the case of animal societal groups). I just think that morals will be different depending on how the society develops. And the development of a society INCLUDES religion in the case of modern societies. I am not arguing that. I just wanted to raise a point about morals IF a society developed WITHOUT religion. What would those morals look like?

Only when others are around is morality outside of harming God then necessary. Therefore, to test your theory you would need people growing up isolated without prior cultural experience rather then one person alone.

As an interesting point, how long did many of those sacrificing nations exist? Many are chronicled of being destroyed in the Bible's book of Judges, something many Christianity critics point to as cruelty. While the practice continues today in the form of abortion, it is interesting to note that nations using it have consistently met a terrible demise, while Israel whose holy scriptures emphatically deny it still has their nation, original land, culture, language, holy scriptures, and history.

When you say before religion was invented, how do you determine that? The Bible says the first human's children sought to worship God, one by offering an animal, the other by offering produce. And of course Adam and Eve had a relationship with God before they messed it up. What do you then term as religion?

Ultimately, God's existence can not be dependent on our knowledge of Him. Just because I don't know you exist, doesn't mean you don't. Just because I don't hear the sound a tree makes in the forest doesn't mean a sound wasn't made (unless you define sound as something heard by someone).

As for societies without religion, they have most definitely been attempted. Lenin attempted to kill all following a religion. Both Russia and China have attempted to create religion-free countries. So then, what would you say their morals look like?

I think Believing in a god is how you feel and if you are comfortable with it, then you should stay with it. I also believe that there are other gods like Alah and Budda and on and on. I feel that no one should be preasured into a religious, you should be able to feel comfortable and it is not a compitition to see whos gods are better or whos religion is better. I thnk you should really have a talk with your preist or someone very religious to try to firgure out whats goin on, not ask a bunch of people online.