June 24, 2007

Morality Part 1: God Hating Atheists

Posted at 11:56 pm by Richard and tagged 10commandments, antitheism, atheism, bible, christianity, interpretation, morality, religion, richard-dawkins, usa. Popularity: 19% [?]

It seems a common claim that morality is impossible without religion. While I might agree that in some cases religion (or, more specifically, the fear of eternal damnation) can be a pretty good motivator, I think that a morality that doesn’t rely on religion is not just possible, but it’s a lot more desirable. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be outlining what some people think of morality without religion, why religion-based morality is potentially suspect, and my ideas on morality.

• Morality Part 2: Immoral Religion
• Morality Part 3: Non-Theistic Morality

God Hating Atheists

Some have claimed that atheism is responsible for immoral acts, and that lack of Christian morality (ignoring the possibility of other types of morality) in schools is responsible for school shootings. Both these articles describe various violent acts and crimes committed by young USAians¹, and then jump right into blaming Atheists and Darwinists (perhaps I’m missing a step in the argument, but I can’t see it – although “How to build a bomb in the public school system” does have one piece of evidence – the words “Natural Selection” on one shooter’s T-shirt):

Now do you realize who the people are who are responsible for children having gotten so violent? The answer is ATHEISTS and other non-beleivers [sic.] in the true God. So you may ask how can this be? The reason why they are responsible is because they hate God and teach their children against God (which is the highest form of child abuse). For example: Atheists hate the TEN COMMANDMENTS because God is their Author. ²

Aside from the obvious problem that Atheists, by definition, are unable to hate God (because as far as they’re concerned God doesn’t even exist) I see no logical reason why someone couldn’t hate the Christian God, but still “love” the 10 commandments. Jews and Muslims still have the 10 commandments, but in this writers mind, I’m sure Jews and Muslims would classify as “non-believers in the true God” (even though, technically, all three religions have the same roots, and thus the same God). There’s also plenty of people who live arguably moral lives while breaking at least the first few commandments. Depending on your interpretation, it’s also possible that all Christians break the 1st commandment, if you read “thou shalt have no other Gods before me”³ as endorsing strict monotheism, given that Christianity (arguably) invokes three Gods⁴ – I think Jews and Muslims are safe, though. Then, of course, there’s those of us who choose not to kill, steal or commit adultery, and still manage to respect our parents every so often – I don’t need to love (or even believe in) the Christian God for that.

There may be many religion-hating Atheists (or, anti-theists – of which Richard Dawkins comes to mind – while I’ve seen him in documentaries, I have yet to actually read his work, though, so I could be wrong), but a God-hating Atheist is an oxymoron. I certainly don’t think taking issue with religion necessarily makes you amoral, just like I don’t think that following a religion (whatever it may be) necessarily makes you moral.

One final thought – how many “immoral” people do you think are out there in this world? 5%? 20%? 50%? Well, if you subscribe to the theory that without Christianity, you’re necessarily immoral, you are immediately saying that 67%⁵ are incapable of living moral lives – not including immoral “Christians”, of course. Is there really a God who would condemn the majority of the world’s population simply because they were raised in a religion other than Christianity?

(To Be Continued… – Morality Part 2 will be posted next Sunday)

Popularity: 19% [?]

1. Residents of the United States of America – often incorrectly (in my mind) called Americans. “The Americas” cover a lot more ground than just the U.S.A. [↩]
2. Atheists Responsible for Youth Crime [↩]
3. Exodus 20:3 [↩]
4. Suggested by AthiestWager, although I think it’s definitely possible to be Christian and follow the 1st commandment – it all comes down to interpretation [↩]
5. According to Wikipedia, only 33.06% of the world’s population are Christian [↩]

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