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Originally Posted by Seekers
How would this priestly caste be able to tell people what to do in all the multitude of their daily lives? And how would they be able to make people obey? Also, exactly what do you mean by God's "teachings"?
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My mistake, let's say God's "essence". People obey not because they are forced to by the priests, but because acting against God would be like acting against the very laws of Cosmos (from an atheistic perspective), something that normally no-one does willingly. They obey also because they fear God's punishment.
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To clarify my own opinion, I think that a state can be politically governed by virtuous leaders, who reward good and never reward bad, and who punish evil deeds. In our societies today, people have so many reasons and excuses to do bad things. If they didn't have all those reasons to do bad, I think they would listen more to their conscience. But I guess you are asking how to define good and bad in the first place. I say it's about that fundamental principle of virtue ethics. True morality is something that will only be discovered in the quest for truth and goodness. Some rules and guidelines are always needed in society, but I don't think that a very long list will work. Rather, a long list creates a lot of reasons and excuses for people to make misuse of the rules, which is what is happening today, when those who know the law use it for their own purposes.
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Why seek truth and goodness if there's no afterlife, no God, etc? My only point here is that those rules and guidelines you speak about must be dictated by a supramundane entity. Besides that, I agree with everything you said.