Morality

We often hear religious folks make the argument that without religion society would have no basis for knowing what is morally right and wrong. What always irks me about these arguments is the glaring omission of so many moral teachings we think of as commonplace today. Angie the Anti-Theist, one of my favorite sources for atheist commentary, lays out pretty clearly how flawed this argument is:

I understand that you think this is a good guide for how to lead a moral life. But the toxic elements are there, and until you liberal Christians change your name and compile a new Bible that doesn't give rules for slavery, that doesn't tell the rapist how many shekels to pay the girl's father in order to marry her after he's raped her, then I think you're part of the problem. As long as the book says a woman is not permitted to teach a man, then it doesn't matter how many progressive churches employ female pastors - these things go in cycles.

What's got this on my mind today? This story from CNN on George Rekers and the "Sissy Boy Experiment":

The article received less attention than our other Rekers stories, but we thought it was more important. Entitled "Before Hiring a Rentboy, Rekers Tried To Spank The Gay Away," it explained how Rekers had attempted to cure a 5-year-old boy of exaggerated feminine behavior with an increasingly aggressive regimen of psychological and physical rewards and punishment, first in a lab, and then in the boy's home...

-snip-

it became foundational research for those who think gay people can become "ex-gay" -- taught or counseled to become straight...

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Even after his suicide, Kirk Murphy's case was still being used as a success story for a movement to treat "unwanted sexual attraction" -- a movement Kirk Murphy never elected to join, and whose use of his childhood story, Maris Murphy was sure, he would have abhorred.

If religious folks are going to run around claiming some authority on the teachings of morality, they are going to have to explain these types of things. Nothing in Christianity strictly forbids beating the gay out of a child. Nothing in Christianity forbids teaching a child that there is something wrong with him. In fact, beating religious "principles" into children's minds, something many of us would call brainwashing and/or torture, has long been an accepted form of "teaching" in the Christian community. Which explains why they treat attempts to stop the beatings of gays as an affront on their rights, because you can't really hate without beating!

You can almost feel the morality, although that might be someone beating you with a stick, it can be hard to tell sometimes. The truth is, when you base your morals on a book it becomes easy to justify anything that isn't strictly forbidden by that book. Our world, society, and morality, are not things that are static or set in stone. They are fluid and present us with new challenges and opportunities every day. Meeting those challenges requires a certain amount of logic and humility, the latter most likely being more important. That humility is crucial to learning new ideas of morality, and it is hard to come by when you are positive that your teachings are the infallible word of god.

There is no manual on morality but even if there were, the Bible certainly would not be it. That is, unless you think slavery and child abuse are morally right and rape is just expensive.