My accuser, Joe Cienkowski (whom somebody created two parody accounts of, probably to make him mad), seemed to be offended that I told him I loved him (repeatedly, and with the help of REO Speedwagon). He seemed offended that I apparently had morals, or at least considered myself a moral person. He wanted morality (or the perception of it) to be an exclusively Christian thing, a privilege saved only for Christians.
I have seen a variation on this sentiment expressed in the form of, to paraphrase, "I'm a Christian, therefore you can trust me."
In this video, Christian comedian Chanda Pierce, at about 3:49, relates how she tried to get a hotel maid to believe that there was someone already sleeping in her room (who turned out to be dead; she expresses no concern for his salvation or sadness at his death--she only talks about how it affects her). "I told them at the desk I was a Christian artist!" she says, about 5:00.
At 5:23, she self-righteously scoffs that the maid thought that she lying, even though she told the hotel staff she was a Christian (she probably made a very deal of it, from my experience with people who have to tell you their Christianity).
"I told her I was a Christian!" she practically screeches, thoroughly offended that she was not taken at her word because of her stated religious beliefs. (Incidentally, at 5:55, she basically tells the maid that the man's health is the maid's problem, not hers. A man is possibly dead, or dying, and all she cares about is getting her things back.)
She then relates how she was disappointed that she had to help, because she had already told the maid that she was a Christian. In other words, she was disappointed at having to do the right thing. It was the "witness" that mattered, not actual morality.
She probably thinks that there are such people as hypocrites, or people who aren't "real Christians." But if that's true, with all of the "fake Christians" running around, it is up to HER to prove that she isn't one of them. It's not up to a stranger to assume that she's a "true Christian" when others say they are but are not. (I know this is the No True Scotsman fallacy, but I'm trying to address what Christians actually believe, even if they are logical fallacies.)
"I had already told her I was a Christian; now I'm gonna have to help," she says with a disgusted look on her face. She tries to do CPR, then when it doesn't work, she calls the front desk, angry at the corpse in her room. I'm sure it was traumatic for her, but I somehow think it was worse for the man who died.
When I found this video, it made me very angry, because it betrayed so blatantly what most Christians only think privately or subconsciously. When it shows up, it's usually a lot more subtle than this. For example, the question:
"Can you be good without God?"
What other group of people has their morality questioned or outright denied on a regular basis? There is the racist statement, "You're one of the good ones," sometimes used against racial minorities, but how many people do not even have the concept a "good atheist" (probably meaning one who doesn't question religious people's superiority, or who doesn't upset the theocracy that many people want to maintain and establish further). A "good" minority doesn't rock the boat and denies that there is such a thing as racism (not that racial minorities don't almost always have it worse overall than white atheists), but for some, just the word "atheist" is offensive (as this Alternet post by Greta Christina so brilliantly illustrates). We must pretend to be religious or at least "spiritual."
But the fact that we even have the concept of morals, of right and wrong, good and bad, says that morals are able to be separate from the question of God's existence or preference.
Otherwise, why wouldn't we simply do what God wanted because we had to? Why would we call God good? Why not simply call him powerful? Why do we have to say that he is worthy of being obeyed, rather than that we have to obey him or he will burn us in hell or punish us?
If Christians believe in the concept of "The Fall," in which all of humanity gained a knowledge of good and evil through the eating of a forbidden fruit, why wouldn't everyone know right from wrong? Their own bible says that everybody knows right from wrong.
What they are really asking, then, is, "Why would you want to be good without God?"
But they can't put it that way, because that sounds accusatory. And it is. They are implying that the atheist doesn't want to be a good person (though everyone wants to be seen as such). Such character assassination is really at the heart of this question.
Other than the above, another useful response might be, "Why do you care if I'm good or not? According to your beliefs, it doesn't matter at all what I do, I still go to hell anyway. You're trying to manipulate me into changing my beliefs by implying that I'm a bad person."
Morality is a hard concept to explain, much less knowing what is right and wrong in a given situation. It is much easier sometimes to simply look to a set of rules, or an authority that you believe speaks to you and tells you what to do, than to weigh the consequences of one's actions and make a hard decision, knowing that it might not turn out to be the best or least harmful option, after all. I can see why Christians and other theists may want to cling to God, or their conception of God, and his rules.
Yet if they are wrong, and make a wrong or harmful decision, and God is not there to provide a safety net or justification, will they then wish that their options had been less constrained?
For example, if they deny a woman an abortion because of their beliefs, and she later dies from complications of pregnancy (or in an illegal abortion), they would probably cling to the concept that they did the right thing "for God." But if they later lose their faith, or find out that God is not real, what are they to cling to? They will have to live with the fact that their beliefs, combined with her desperation, killed a woman.
Perhaps that is something to think about, when some are tempted to use Pascal's wager.
What do you think of this? Leave a comment below, or send me an email at: atheistjourneysblog@gmail.com
Follow or tweet me here: https://twitter.com/atheistjourneys
No comments:
Post a Comment