Atheists Have Christian Values Too

Aug 21, 2008 at 10:51pm

According to Pat Carnahan, nobody should make the mistake of voting for a president that doesn't have any faith. Apparently, if our next president doesn't have "Christian values" we are doomed. So what exactly are Christian values?

I think that a lot of atheists would take this opportunity to brand "Christian values" as that which is found in the Bible. Once the Bible is defined as a source for values, nearly anyone can present an argument that it isn't even close to a good guide on morals. There are a lot of nice tidbits in the Bible, for sure, like "thou shalt not steal"- but there are conversely a remarkable number of horrific tidbits as well:

If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free: Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.

Leviticus 21:2-6

Or:

If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found; Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days.

Deuteronomy 22:28-29

One could go on and on and list dozens of horrific passages from the Bible, but that is not the purpose of my entry here. What I want to show, is that arguably, any book that can be proclaimed as a book with great moral teaching should definitely not have anything close to the aforementioned passages. I think that much is clear.

I could stop here and say that the Bible reflects what "Christian values" are- but I don't think it does. Realistically, when you think of Christian values, you aren't going to think of raping women, forced labor, pillaging towns, and stoning people for working on the Sabbath. Although those things are part of the Bible, and thusly, part of the Christian religion (and perhaps on another day I'll argue that those who aren't engaging in such things aren't really Christians at all), I don't think they are part of what most people consider are "Christian values". Actually, I don't think Christian values come from the Bible at all.

Even as an atheist, when I think of Christian values, I imagine a high moral code and a high standard of ethics. Someone who is caring, kind, thoughtful, and follows the golden rule- do unto others as they would have done unto you. Surely, Christian values are to be desired.

However, I think Christianity has unabashedly taken credit for these so-called "Christian values". Rape is allowed in the traditional Christian religion- how could a good moral code come from such allowances? I don't think it can. The Ten Commandments aren't enough- four of them talk about which gods you can and can't worship and how you should worship the one true god. And one tells you not to be jealous- something that no human can avoid. The other five seem like a nice code to live by: honor your parents, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, and don't lie. Something's missing... Actually, a lot is missing.

Wouldn't you expect a world class code of ethics to say something about respecting the wishes of a woman? (Read: don't rape people.) Or perhaps it might say something about being kind to others, or to invest time in the pursuit of knowledge and to better your person so that you may help others. Or... Well you get the picture.

Are The Ten Commandments awful? No, not really. We can just do a lot better. And I do mean, a lot better.

So the next question is... If part of what makes up "Christian values" involves things like not raping people, and that isn't a clear message in the Bible, where did that value come from if not from The Ten Commandments? This question is not easy to answer, but first, the misconception that The Ten Commandments is where we get all our morals from must be broken.

In comes the Code of Hammurabi; he was an ancient Babylonian King. The set of laws it describes is extensive, and there is nothing in The Ten Commandments that cannot be found in the Code of Hammurabi. This early set of Babylonian laws is just one example of several different moral/law codes that existed before the Bible was ever conceived.

To answer the question: "Where do we get our morals?" I ask you to imagine a world where we didn't live by the set of values you envision when you think of "Christian values". What would it be like if everyone thought it okay to rape other people? Or kill people? Or steal other's property? Could the human race exist? I say absolutely not. Our moral code exists today in the fashion it does because we otherwise could not co-exist: our morals have simply been passed through the natural selection filter. People who are genetically more like to rape and kill others are (or were) at a severe selective disadvantage- whereas the people who are more likely to get along with the rest of the species, are going to have a selective advantage over those that don't.

Can it really be that simple? Maybe my answer isn't the answer- in fact, it probably isn't the entire picture. But I do know one thing; we do not get our morals from Christianity; we simply have far more sophisticated morals than that which is brutally described in the Bible. Even if one could somehow show that we did get our morals from the Bible, then we must regress back to earlier codes of law that are vastly similar- very little of Christianity is original.

I then ask- if our morals are formed separate from a 2,000 year old piece of allegorical literature, is it not possible for an atheist to have so-called "Christian values"? In fact, I would far rather our elected representatives have no faith at all; as it is an extremely strong indicator of sufficient critical thinking skills. Now that is a desirable trait in a leader. To say that someone who has no faith also does not have "Christian values" is a blatant lie, and a dangerous exercise in mendacity. It carries with it the supposition that all good morals come from Christianity, and as I have shown, that is a fallacy.

And of course, for the proverbial nail in the cofin:

The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.

That's from the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli, signed into law by John Adams and approved unanimously by Congress.

Comments (9) | Post Comment