Christians and Morality

I've had ongoing conversations with Christians on Facebook and this blog in recent weeks about the origin of morality. On one hand they criticize society’s perceived moral relativism and the dangers of post-modern thought yet they question truth, facts, reality, rationality, and secular morality in attempts to convince me of their perspective. Either this is a profound paradox or Christians are simple ignorant of the world around them. I am quite certain it is the latter.

They claim the Hebrew god gave law to humanity yet he himself is not subject to it. Throughout the Bible, their god breaks many of the rules he sets forth. For instance, he tells the Israelites not to kill. I’ve heard plenty of preachers interpret this to mean, “Do not kill innocent people.” Yet he tells his people to slaughter innocent people—entire villages including children—throughout the Old Testament. This is the epitome of moral relativism.

Christians believe that the Americanized/Western interpretation of the gospels, Pauline doctrine, and Hebrew texts are the only place to find morality. In other words, to them, one cannot possess innate morality, but must read it in a book written by ancient Near East sheepherders or whoever. If I were to find my morality in the Bible, I would have to believe that I must kill homosexuals and disobedient children and that women must be submissive to men. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew god was jealous and ruthless. In the New Testament, Paul presented a form of morality based mainly on etiquette—what to wear and how to act. Meanwhile, Jesus presented a meek and mild doctrine that shunned violence and embraced the innocent. These three perspectives are clearly inconsistent and offer no practical morality whatsoever.

It is time for Christians to realize that morality is innate. There are numerous moral codes which predate theirs and indicate morality has been around a lot longer than 3,400 years—long before the mythical Moses. Science demonstrates that through natural selection we have developed morality. There is evidence in the animal kingdom that species are altruistic and possess an natural desire to preserve their kind. Over the millennia, natural selection has favored those species that protect and defend related beings in their pack, school, or hive. The Hebrews simply documented a natural phenomenon and cited a divine source.