Morality without religion is only a kind of dead reckoning - an endeavor to find our place on a cloudy sea by measuring the distance we have run, but without any observation of the heavenly bodies.

Summary

This quote suggests that without the guidance or grounding of religion, morality becomes subjective and arbitrary. Morality without religion is likened to dead reckoning, a method of navigation that relies solely on estimating one's position based on past movements, lacking any reference to external and objective markers like the stars. Similarly, morality without religion lacks a fixed and universally accepted standard, making it unstable and uncertain, as it is based solely on individual or societal interpretations.