A Moral Dilemma
Submitted by charles.wallace on Sun, 05/04/2008 - 15:32.
A Moral Dilemma
Is a nation without god doomed to go down a slippery slope into a land of moral chaos? Christians often argue that without god, and the "moral compass" found in the bible, humans are incapable of being moral. Christians believe that human values and ethics are relative and subject to change while god’s values are absolute. A government without god would leave a moral vacuum that would be filled in with human corruption. Radical Christians believe a secular government is inherently amoral; family values would disappear, human life would have no value, hallucinogenic drugs would be legal, prostitution would be legal, and the churches would be shut down. Society would condone homosexuality, divorce, atheism, and hedonism, among many other "evils." This argument is as insulting as it is inherently flawed. It assumes that mankind is inherently amoral. That is simply absurd. It also assumes that there is one true god whose morality is unchanging. Anyone who has actually taken the time to read the whole bible, rather than memorize quaint feel-good phrases, faces a dilemma. God's morality, his personality, and his behavior are anything but consistent. The morality and family values that our nation is built upon comes not from the biblical god but from human values.
Take for instance one of the most common
values that the Christian right loves to promote -- family values. Does
the god of the bible support the family values American Christians practice?
To answer that, let us examine a passage of "sacred scripture:”
If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear. (Deu 21:18-21)
Yes, you read it correctly. Here god clearly states his family values. You have a son who is a fat gluttonous pig. You tell him to go on a diet and he refuses. What are you to do? Kill him. Is he an alcoholic? To hell with AA, death is the divine cure. What are some of the other behaviors that deserve death? Marrying someone of a different faith.1 Cursing your parents.2 Committing adultery.3 Cursing God.4 Proselytizing for a different god.5 For all these “crimes” the cosmic godfather wants you dead. Are these the "family values" upon which America was founded? Unless I am mistaken, butchering your son or daughter, even in the name of god, is a crime in all civilized nations, including secular ones. Nor is god content to punish just the sinner. He wants to punish their children, their grandchildren, and even their great grandchildren despite their total innocence.6
When Christians profess that god is a god of love have they ever thought what type of love it is that god offers? Is it the love typical of an American family? It is not. God’s love is totally conditional and warped. In Leviticus 26:14-25 god clearly states his chosen people must obey his every command and worship and serve only him or he will make sure they will be tortured and slaughtered by their enemies.7 This is a sick love. It is not the love a father has for his child; it is the perverted love that might come straight from a Stephen King horror novel.
What about the value of a human life. Does our basic value of human life come from god? It does not. The United Nations forbids genocide. Ordering soldiers to massacre innocent people is a war crime. Yet commanding Jews to commit genocide is precisely what the god of the bible did.
But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee: (Deu 20:16-17)
God, who his followers claim is all powerful, could of simply put his "chosen" people in a land that was already unoccupied. Instead, he orders them to invade a foreign land, annihilate them, and take possession of the land for themselves. According to god's “absolute” ethics, why shouldn't a “Christian” America use its neutron bombs against the Middle East and simply take their land and its oil for itself? Christians certainly claim they are god's chosen people, so why not assert their divine rights and take possession of their rightful inheritance?
What about Jesus. Drive around town and you are bound to see a sign or bumper sticker that reads: "Jesus loves you." Does he? Perhaps he would have if you are a practicing Jew. However, if you are parading these stickers you are likely not a Jew. You are undoubtedly a gentile; a group Jesus despised. He considered gentiles to be on the same level as an unclean dog.8 A more appropriate analogy today might be a sewer rat. Nor did he come to save you. He came to bring salvation to Jews.9 Jesus did not promote modern family values. He came to bring a sword; he wanted to set father against son and mother against daughter. Your enemies would be those in your own house10 He taught in parables to keep the masses from understanding him so they could not be saved.11 The Jesus of the gospels is not the Christ of Paul, who was the only apostle who had never actually seen Jesus.
Christians might argue that I am being highly selective in my choice of passages. In part this is correct. There are passages that proclaim god’s love for his people in a more positive light. But even this creates a serious problem for the believer. If the bible is the word of god how can it be so inconsistent? How can god's identity, his very morality, change so drastically? Is god bipolar? Schizophrenic? Are the creator and the Christ of St. Paul the same god? The Gnostic Christians did not think so. Their opinion of the creator is found in “The Testimony of Truth” where they write that the god of genesis was a malicious grudger who lacks foreknowledge and blinds the minds of his own followers.12 When you kneel down and bow your head in prayer are your praying to the genocidal creator, Jesus the Jewish Messiah, or the Christ of St. Paul, saver of gentiles? Which one of these gods is giving you your moral compass?
A secular government does not inherently produce a corrupt society. Humans do not need a god or book to tell us what is moral. There is no "divine compass" to be found in the bible that reveals absolute truth and morality. Biblical morality is relative and it is continuously altered to meet the needs and evolving morality of its followers. And for that we can all be grateful. Otherwise the civilized world would have to fear even more militant religious groups.
[i] (Lev 20:2-6) Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones.
[ii] (Lev 20:9) For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.
[iii] (Lev 20:10) And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
[iv] (Lev 24:16) And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the LORD, shall be put to death.
[v] (Deu 13:6-9) If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.
[vi] (Exo 20:5) Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me
[vii] (Lev
26:14-25)
[viii] (Mat 15:26) But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.
[ix] (Mat 15:24) But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
(Mat 10:5-6) These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
[x] Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
(Mat 10:34-36)
[xi] And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
(Mat 13:10-13)
[xii] But what sort is this God? First he maliciously refused Adam from eating of the tree of knowledge, and, secondly, he said "Adam, where are you?" God does not have foreknowledge? Would he not know from the beginning? And afterwards, he said, "Let us cast him out of this place, lest he eat of the tree of life and live forever." Surely, he has shown himself to be a malicious grudger! And what kind of God is this? For great is the blindness of those who read, and they did not know him. And he said, "I am the jealous God; I will bring the sins of the fathers upon the children until three (and) four generations." And he said, "I will make their heart thick, and I will cause their mind to become blind, that they might not know nor comprehend the things that are said." But these things he has said to those who believe in him and serve him! (The Testimony of Truth)