Why Christianity is Immoral

[Caecilian]

I hope that we can all agree that certain christians and christian organizations are immoral- Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church come to mind. That isn't what I'm interested in discussing here. What I want to argue is that christian doctrine is immoral, and so by extension is the entirity of christianity. Heres why:

What principles give meaning to our lives, are valuable, make our existence worthwhile? Its an age-old question, and different people will give different answers. Most, maybe all, answers will refer to at least some of the following: Life, Love, Freedom,Truth. Lets take these one at a time:

Life
Our lives and the lives of others are important to us. We work, play, make love, bring up children, chat on internet boards, read, sing, go on holidays...lots of stuff. We have ups and downs. Sometimes we struggle. We end up dying. In general, we do our best.
   But for christianity, all of this- our lived experience, our daily existence- is a prelude to a second and more important life, an afterlife which lasts for eternity. The joys of living are but a pale reflection of the eternal bliss of heaven. The hard times and crises are but a pale reflection of the eternal horrors of hell. Some christians even go further- they say that it is only the afterlife that gives meaning and purpose to our everyday lives.
   And so our daily living is diminished, belittled, made into a mere shadow of an imaginary afterlife. Thus: christianity is anti-life, and therefore immoral.

Love
Human love is wonderful. Love can be passionate, all-consuming; love can burn. Love can be tender, nurturing, playful, joyful, loyal, painful. For those who we love we will make great sacrifices- our lives, even- and we make those sacrifices willingly.
   But for christianity, human love is an inferior version of the divine love of god. For the christian deity is all-loving (how squares with his other putative properties is quite another matter), and any love that humans feel is necessarily finite.
   And so our love for each other is diminished, belittled, relegated to being the pale reflection of the love of an imaginary entity. Thus: christianity is anti-love, and therefore immoral.

Freedom
The fight for freedom is both ancient and ongoing. From John Ball (excommunicated priest) to Buenaventura Durruti; from the barricades of Paris to the townships of Soweto; from Kronstadt to Selma: men and women have fought with words and guns, and frequently died for freedom. And the struggle continues today.
   But for christianity, this struggle is misguided, even evil. For the lord commands us to render unto Caeser, and to follow unthinkingly the moral code of the bible. We are not to be autonomous- no, it is our purpose to obey, to worship, to abase ourselves, to sacrifice our desire for freedom on the altar of the church. Follow the rules, beg for forgiveness- truly this is the morality of willing slaves.
   And so our ideals of human freedom are discounted and demeaned. Christianity is utterly opposed to human freedom; it is anti-freedom, and therefore immoral.

Truth
Science is our greatest intellectual achievement. Through science, we are able to construct models of how the world works. As well as increasing our understanding, science (via technology) has given us vast material benefits. Without it, we would be leading shorter, less comfortable and more fearful lives.
   The truths of science are recognized as being approximations. And they are contingent, always vulnerable to disconfirmation by new findings. Christianity, however, claims to offer us something else- absolute, eternal truth- the inerrant word of an omniscient god. The deity's word frequently conflicts with the empirical findings of science. Genesis vs Cosmology and Evolution; the entire document vs Archaeology. Even the most liberal and relatively rational christians go against science to some degree- e.g. by insisting, against the evidence, that jesus must have really existed. The literalists throw out the whole scientific outlook in its entirity.
   And so christianity is anti-scientific on 2 counts- it denies science and it claims a higher truth, which is conveniently unverifiable. Christianity is not really interested in the search for truth/ knowledge at all- rather, it is the search for faith at the expense of truth and knowledge. Thus: christianity is anti-truth, and therefore immoral.

Similar comments could be made about christianity and beauty, justice, nature, and no doubt other worthwhile values too.

Christianity is a vile belief-system. It attempts to demean, debase and degrade everything that is valuable in our existence. Christianity itself, and not just certain versions of it or certain christians, is deeply and irredeemably immoral. As well as being false.

Comments welcome.

[Martin TK]

Everything in Christianity goes back to "Original Sin" which means we are all damned for the actions of Adam and Eve.  Yes, I totally agree with you, Christianity, and all religions in my opinion, are immoral, unjust, controling, and just plain EVIL.

[Dretlin]

Everything in Christianity goes back to "Original Sin" which means we are all damned for the actions of Adam and Eve.  Yes, I totally agree with you, Christianity, and all religions in my opinion, are immoral, unjust, controling, and just plain EVIL.

The idea of original sin came around the 11th century. (If I am not mistaken!)

Hard to believe that horrible idea stuck.

[i_am_i]

Christianity is a vile belief-system. It attempts to demean, debase and degrade everything that is valuable in our existence. Christianity itself, and not just certain versions of it or certain christians, is deeply and irredeemably immoral. As well as being false.

I liked your "article" very much, Caecilian, and this quote I really like. It's refreshing and, well, fun to see it put that way. Did you write that? Well done, I'd say.

[The Black Jester]

Christianity is a vile belief-system. It attempts to demean, debase and degrade everything that is valuable in our existence. Christianity itself, and not just certain versions of it or certain christians, is deeply and irredeemably immoral. As well as being false.

I liked your "article" very much, Caecilian, and this quote I really like. It's refreshing and, well, fun to see it put that way. Did you write that? Well done, I'd say.

I second.

[freeservant]

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwes ... ing-breed/


My worldview is not just about what happens in some afterlife but is a means to value life and liberty now.  You can try to tear down my belief and even try a moral argument to do it.  Yet where do you get your objective morals from?  Frederick Nietzsche?

Personally I find the New Atheists’ anti-Christian aggression tedious: criticising people for their privately-held religious beliefs shows a lack of class and maturity, and besides which this sudden outpouring of bile against Christianity seems clearly motivated by a secret fear of another Abrahamic religion. But I wouldn’t want to live in a world without atheists â€" if I was Julian Baggini I’d be trying to get Guardian  readers to breed more to ensure the world in 50 year’s time isn’t populated entirely by religious crackpots of various shades.

I guess the writer of the article can take heart that even if atheists don't tend to value life so as to reproduce we can always make more as new atheists are just a straw man away.

[skwurll]

What about the anti-homosexual and sexist teachings in the bible?
Those are as good examples as any, in my opinion.

[Caecilian]

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwest/100010450/a-nightmare-for-richard-dawkins-statistics-show-that-atheists-are-a-dying-breed/


My worldview is not just about what happens in some afterlife but is a means to value life and liberty now.  You can try to tear down my belief and even try a moral argument to do it.  Yet where do you get your objective morals from?  Frederick Nietzsche?

I'm sure that you do care about life and liberty now. However, those same principles are undermined by your religious beliefs, which point towards the inferiority of our earthly life, and are profoundly opposed to any idea of personal autonomy. Your in a position of cognitive dissonance- believing in 2 contradictory positions at once- my advice is to jettison the religious stuff.

As far as objective morals go, it depends on what you mean. If you mean absolute moral values decreed by an angry desert god (or something similar), then I'm afraid that no such things exist. Absolute morals are as fictional as absolute truth. Never mind, eh? On the other hand, we can come to socially agreed moral values, and some of these ethical systems will be more condusive to happy and fufilled human existence than others.

I guess the writer of the article can take heart that even if atheists don't tend to value life so as to reproduce we can always make more as new atheists are just a straw man away.

Its not a straw man. You've misunderstood what I wrote. I'm not attacking the morals of individual christians- I'm attacking the morality of the belief system.

Thanks for the positive feedback from i_am_i and The Black Jester. For the record: yes, I did write all of that myself.

And thanks to skwurll for another fine example of the immorality of christianity:

What about the anti-homosexual and sexist teachings in the bible?
Those are as good examples as any, in my opinion.

Yep. The principle of toleration is another one that christianity is totally opposed to. Gays get stoned (and not in any enjoyable way!), the temples of other religions get torched and their idols smashed.

[Thumpalumpacus]

The fact that the Christian god metes out the death penalty to everyone, for the applebite of two, is the cancer at the root of this BS.

Bottom line: this religion is a tool of control, designed to work on the basis of fear and guilt, bereft of evidence, and therefore unworthy of any more consideration.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Also, I personally find the order to dash ut of the brains of infants to be the most reprehensible of Yahweh's exhortations.

[Caecilian]

The fact that the Christian god metes out the death penalty to everyone, for the applebite of two, is the cancer at the root of this BS.

Bottom line: this religion is a tool of control, designed to work on the basis of fear and guilt, bereft of evidence, and therefore unworthy of any more consideration.

Also, I personally find the order to dash ut of the brains of infants to be the most reprehensible of Yahweh's exhortations

Original sin is part of the problem for sure. I'm inclined to think that root of the cancer is a bit deeper though- once you invent a god and set him above humanity you've got trouble.

Religion is certainly a tool of control- the opium of the masses, the justification for oppression. But its surely not just a tool of control. Religions are also attempts to explain the universe, and they do this by projecting human meanings on to the non-human, physical world. Thus god the father, divinely-ordained laws and so on. Its all a sort of anthropomorphism, and clearly a category error.

Dashing out infants brains is very bad, but so is mass murder, mass rape etc. Yahweh is just evil- if he were a human in modern society he'd be termed a sociopath, and locked up indefinitely in a secure mental hospital.

[Thumpalumpacus]

The fact that the Christian god metes out the death penalty to everyone, for the applebite of two, is the cancer at the root of this BS.

Bottom line: this religion is a tool of control, designed to work on the basis of fear and guilt, bereft of evidence, and therefore unworthy of any more consideration.

Also, I personally find the order to dash ut of the brains of infants to be the most reprehensible of Yahweh's exhortations

Original sin is part of the problem for sure. I'm inclined to think that root of the cancer is a bit deeper though- once you invent a god and set him above humanity you've got trouble.

Religion is certainly a tool of control- the opium of the masses, the justification for oppression. But its surely not just a tool of control. Religions are also attempts to explain the universe, and they do this by projecting human meanings on to the non-human, physical world. Thus god the father, divinely-ordained laws and so on. Its all a sort of anthropomorphism, and clearly a category error.

Dashing out infants brains is very bad, but so is mass murder, mass rape etc. Yahweh is just evil- if he were a human in modern society he'd be termed a sociopath, and locked up indefinitely in a secure mental hospital.

I'm just analyzing the belief in its own terms (good and evil), not conceding its claims.

You're right that religions seek to provide explanations, and that that was what brought them about in the first case. I should have included the word "hijacked" in there.  It more clearly expresses my view.

[Sophus]

My worldview is not just about what happens in some afterlife but is a means to value life and liberty now. You can try to tear down my belief and even try a moral argument to do it. Yet where do you get your objective morals from? Frederick Nietzsche?

It looks as though you haven't read any Friedrich Nietzsche. He didn't believe in anything objectively, especially morality.

Personally I find the New Atheists’ anti-Christian aggression tedious: criticising people for their privately-held religious beliefs shows a lack of class and maturity, and besides which this sudden outpouring of bile against Christianity seems clearly motivated by a secret fear of another Abrahamic religion. But I wouldn’t want to live in a world without atheists â€" if I was Julian Baggini I’d be trying to get Guardian readers to breed more to ensure the world in 50 year’s time isn’t populated entirely by religious crackpots of various shades.

The problem is every act is an act of philosophy. We are all philosophers, like it or not, so we shouldn't be so lax with our  standards. As Volatire phrased it, "As long as people believe in absurdities they will commit atrocities." Note: I am not saying we shouldn't allow such thoughts, or by any means outlaw certain beliefs. I am, however, saying I think this place would be a much better world without certain beliefs, such as those found in Christianity.