Morality it seems, is something that only God can decide. Humans are just too stupid. The ability to discern this varies from (Christian) group to group, depending on who you ask – fundamentals having the hardest time grasping that the bible cannot be a moral guide. Catholics also seem to fail miserably, despite having a more liberal view of the bibles teachings. Many Christians seem to think that God was always moral and right, I assume from the teaching in Hebrews: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” There are in fact other verses that make the same point, but I particularly like this one since it deals with Jesus directly and in fact is part of the New Testament.
One could reasonably see this to mean that God is unchanging. What was right 2000 years ago, is correct and moral today. It doesn’t make sense that God makes mistakes, so if something was right once, it must always be right. When we look back at the Old Testament teachings, we can assume that anything taught there would be relevant today. We see clearly that Morality could not be further from Gods mind, however.
Deuteronomy Chapter 21 for example:
18 … “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” 21 Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.
Wait what? God wants us to stone our children to death?
Chapter 22 in Deuteronomy fares no better:
28 If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, 29 he shall pay her father fifty shekels[a] of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.
How lovely, the victim must marry her rapist. What a jolly good moral code.
If Deuteronomy isn’t your thing, then we should perhaps take a look at Exodus Chapter 21:
20 “Anyone who beats their male or female slave with a rod must be punished if the slave dies as a direct result, 21 but they are not to be punished if the slave recovers after a day or two, since the slave is their property.
I would argue that even the most evangelical Christian would have a hard time beating their slaves to within an inch of their lives. I put it forward to Christians that in fact the bible in no way reflects how we should live our lives. It is an immoral victimising account of what happened. God is not interested in Morality, if he was he would simply put a stop to immoral acts that occur daily. Why not intervene? Not intervening is the opposite of moral – allowing rape for example.
Even in the beatitudes (Sermon on the Mount) the teachings are simply the defunct. Matthew Chapter 6 for example tells us:
34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
This is again, total trash. I doubt that there is a single reader that takes this seriously. If we gave no thought of tomorrow we would not even be able to progress as a society. The other trouble is that the many Christians still maintain that Old Testament Ten Commandments are moral codes. They just can’t shake them. These 10 laws you must obey, but the six hundred and three that came before them we don’t need. The criteria for what laws to follow and what laws to toss out is a muddled labyrinth of immoral doctrine. No wonder they murdered people for translating the bible into English (Thomas More). The facts are plain to see – morality has nothing to do with Christianity. Some try to argue that these verses are to be taken in a metaphorical sense – Jesus isn’t actually telling you to sell all your belongings. Whilst it is clear to me that these people don’t read their bibles, they are at an impasse. Is the bible just full of things that are meaningless metaphors? How do you distinguish between fact and fiction? To take that road leads to a bible that falls apart under its own weight. Why accept any of it to be true? Where do souls or original sin come from in the metaphorical Bible?
As I don’t accept conventional Christianity as true, I am often told I am going to hell (apostacy). I often wonder what makes a good loving Christian believe that. The paradox they find themselves in is that any good moral people who don’t believe in God, must burn in the lake of flames, while rapists and murderers (eg: some Catholic priests) who have accepted Jesus go to heaven. To me this is the nail in the coffin for morality being anything to do with religion.
Its ok you are a raping child molester, you love Jesus and you can go to heaven.
I in fact argue that Matthew Chapter 5 says that anyone who calls themselves a Christian, no matter how immoral or disgusting they are will go to heaven:
19Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven
The bible (if you take it to be a moral code) is a get out of jail free card, for any sin. This is clearly a moral dilemma for anyone who has been indoctrinated by the various forms of organized religion. How can you believe that good people go to hell while bad people go to heaven?
Moral teachings from the bible is a lie, read the bible and see for yourself. I put it to anyone who has actually read the bible that the old testament is total trash, and should be tossed out (it is debatable that some of it even happened), and that the new testament has very little to say with regards to morality. Why does God not clarify Slavery is wrong? Instead in the New Testament slavery is assumed to be normal (Ephesians 6):
5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.
We don’t need a bible to tell us that Murder, theft and perjury is a sin. We don’t need it to tell us that being civil to our parents is good. People who don’t know this we call a sociopath. Even hardcore Christians don’t believe the teachings of the bible. They routinely engage in contraception, premarital sex, lust (thought crime), and masturbation. Sometimes all on the same day. The truth is that the bible took some morals that humans already possessed and put them into text. I conclude by stating the fact: The bible is not a moral code, and to view it as such forces you to become immoral. Why else does the Catholic Church insist on saying Condoms are evil?
For clarification all texts quoted from the bible were taken from NIV online.
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