25 March 2015

Atheists Can't Be Moral

Do you watch Duck Dynasty?  Phil Robertson seems like one of those people it would be interesting to know, but you wouldn't want him to be your uncle or your best friend.  I don't really get what Miss Kay sees in him, but ok.  Recently, he went off on some odd tangent about how atheists don't really believe in divine judgement.

Something about well, if an atheist's wife and kids are raped and decapitated, the perpetrators won't face divine judgement because they were just having fun and somehow this is all ok.

Well.

First off, they'd face divine judgement whether the atheist in this hypothetical story were kooky or not.  Second... what the hello?

Now, if he were to say that any moral code that isn't based on God's Word is imperfect, I'd agree.  If he were to say that even Christians disagree about some moral issues, and therefore we ought to try to have some grace for people - but that that grace doesn't include decapitation and stuff - I'd agree. 

I'm not a theologian but I think that we get much of our moral code from the people around us, Christian or not.  Do you think that a Christian in 2015 would have the same way of looking at the world as a Christian in 1368?  God's Word never changes, though our society sure does and I'm not sure I want to go back to 1368, thanks.

Not to mention, I don't know of any atheists who feel it's "ok" to rape and decapitate children and women.  I mean, probably some of them are out there.  But I don't know of any and I don't think that's a normal "atheist thing," ok?

If you watch the show, you know Phil Robertson just kinda rambles on about nothing in particular every now and then.  Ordinarily I just roll my eyes a little but I think he went a bit far this time.  If he wants to be a good Ambassador for Christ, he could at least apologize for being insensitive.

Up to him.  Because really, everyone needs to evaluate what they feel God's calling them to do, or not to do, or even whether there is a God.  That makes for scary times, maybe, but I don't want anyone else making those decisions for me.

4 comments:

  1. Never ever watched the show. Find or weird and unsettling. Now I know why

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    1. Yeah, basically some pretty bright hicks who find themselves in invented situations. Si needs a hunting dog and finds a poodle. Stuff like that.

      The poodle could work, though. Si is my fave character but I think everyone feels that way.

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  2. While I think there is a strong case to be made philosophically that a godless world does not have a basis for morality, the pop-culture understanding (as described above) is far from this point [smile]. And I find the whole idea of moral relativism to be a myth. People are completely relativistic. Not even chaotic evil villains like the Joker in Batman. [sigh]

    But ... yeah.

    Thanks for sharing [smile]. I enjoy the things you find!

    ~Luke

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    1. You know, the more I think on it, the more I think Jesus's "do unto others as you would have others do unto you" is the best guideline, really. You have to consider the other person's viewpoint and humanity as equal to your own when you do that. I don't think you can go much wrong with that, although sometimes our understandings of what the other person's experience is like, or what they would want, can be very far off the mark!

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Non-troll comments always welcome! :)

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