“Then where do you get your morals, if not from God?”
I GET MY MORALS THE SAME PLACE you do: My DNA-evolved physical and mental makeup, and (most apparently) the culture around me: society.
We are greatly influenced by those around us. Our instincts combine with social awareness to help shape how we behave. I’m no scientist. I’m not a sociologist either. But simple observation reveals a lot. Yogi Berra was right: “You can observe a lot, by watching.”
Us humans have learned, over the years, that it’s more beneficial to team up with others. It helps us survive… and advance. And we’ve also learned that it’s beneficial and easier to get along with others in many circumstances. That’s where we’ve developed our sense of right and wrong. The differences in cultural mores is easy to see when many different societies are compared. The fact that in some parts of the world it’s okay to require women to be subject to men—whereas most of us Americans would (should?) vigorously oppose that… is an obvious example.
In many countries people receive the death penalty for engaging in same-sex relations. In the US, that is fortunately not the case. Sure, many Americans still believe that homosexual relationships are an abomination to God, but do most of them believe that gays deserve death?
And, importantly, you don’t even need to compare cultures that don’t share a common religion to see this. Many cultures that purport to worship the same god have widely varying standards of behavior.
LET’S SAY THAT YOU, AS A 21st CENTURY conservative evangelical American Christian, were somehow transported to “Plimouth” (Plymouth Colony), Massachusetts in, say, 1630. The Puritans there (who ostensibly worship the same God you do) would be horrified to see how you dress. (Women, do your ankles show?) As well, you would violate many, many of their norms in the way you behave (not merely dress). Indeed, they would offend your sensibilities too! If you’re of the belief that alcohol should never pass your lips, you would have a hard time living with the Pilgrims! And… “Salem Witch Trials,” anyone?
Even among current-day groups who worship the same god who gives them all their morals, there is often a huge disparity in how people should/do behave. Take a few topics on which the Church does not universally agree: Alcohol, the death penalty, homosexuality, the use of electricity…. All these topics, and many more, show the diversity that occurs between groups that belong to the bigger whole.
This doesn’t even begin to cover issues that are within the Church, such as: eternal security; the “age of accountability”; is baptism required for salvation?; should baptism be by immersion or by sprinkling?; is communion supposed to merely represent the blood and body of Christ, or does the eucharist actually embody the physical presence of Jesus?; is it okay to go to movies? to dance? to play cards? (you may chuckle at those last three, but I’d bet your great grandparents didn’t).
Again, these kinds of ideas—moral issues that in some cases define the very foundation of salvation itself—are widespread, and conflicting, between individual denominations (mini-cultures) and belief systems. Why? Because they’re not coming from one source (God Himself). They are an amalgam of current values and group culture.
Does One omnipotent, omniscient God oversee and imbue his creation with morality? If so, he sure is inconsistent!
YAHWEH DOES NOT EMBODY MY IDEA OF MORALITY
AND THEN THERE’S THE MORALITY THAT God Himself espouses in his “inerrant Word.” If you embrace the idea of punishing children for the “sins” of their ancestors, you would agree with God’s “morality,” but not mine. (Which, I guess, would be the point the Christian would want to make?)
Same for slavery. And the excuse that’s given… that people in biblical times were so corrupt that God needed to “coax” them back to the right way of life, so he needed to accede to their cultural way… that’s ludicrous on two fronts: 1) God saw fit to dictate that various types of fabric should never be mixed together when making clothes (Leviticus 19:10), yet he didn’t think that owning another person was bad enough to prohibit? 2) I don’t care what your culture is, owning another human being (even from outside your own group/nation—Israel), should never be allowed. Ever.[^1]
Same for mass genocide. The God of Israel explicitly told his people to destroy other nations that didn’t believe like they did. Every person: Men, women, children. Oh, except Israel could keep the virgins for themselves. “But Matthew, those nations were wicked! They deserved it.” Every single person deserved it? The children too? This was the best that an omnipotent, omniscient God could do? This is not my idea of morality.
And of course, let’s not forget that Yahweh supposedly created everything, and whether he intended for suffering to happen or not, he foreknew it would happen—yet let it it anyway. Billions of people condemned to Hell. Children born with horrible physical and/or mental defects. People living in squalor by no fault of their own. Animals born into suffering, and die horrible and terrifying deaths at the hand of their predators…. (Would you treat your pet like that, then just shrug your shoulders?)
No, we don’t get our morals from the God of the Bible. If we did, God help us.* We get our morals from each other… from the idea that the fittest humans survive, and many thrive, because we get long and agree on how to behave. The evidence is incontrovertible.
[^1] Books have been written on this subject, so I shan’t go on further here, except to say that nowhere in the Bible is man explicitly told that “owning” another human being is wrong—and in fact, instructions are actually given on how to do it right.
* Sarcasm. It’s my “love language.”