I’ve even heard two atheists make similar arguments in the past couple of months, such as: ‘you have to admit that most of our morals and laws are based on religion.’ No, I don’t have to admit that, for one very simple reason – it’s bullshit. What chance do we have if such absurd rubbish is believed even by some atheists? A few of the pronouncements in the bible just happen to correspond with current thinking. So what? What is completely ignored, however, is the huge amount of biblical content which would now be considered sick, nasty and depraved by anyone’s standards. So what is the relevance to modern laws and morality if just a few of the biblical commandments can be read to correspond with modern laws? Bog all. Some of the proclamations of all other religions (both current and extinct) would also intersect with modern laws and morality. Does this mean that modern morality and laws are based on all those religions as well? Fuck no.

Those two atheists seemed, to me, to be confusing cause and effect. Religion is not the cause of modern morality. Rather, the religious morality of the bible was based upon a moral code that was already in existence. Given what we know from the bible, that moral code was seriously fucked up, but hey, it was a long time ago and things have changed. When the bible was written, it was seen as perfectly reasonable to stone a female to death if she was raped (if she was betrothed when the rape occurred that is. If she was single, the rapist could just buy her. Hooray for her). Now, we would quite rightly view such practice as barbaric. People tend to pick and choose the parts of the bible that fit with their preconceived moral convictions, and completely ignore or rationalise away all the nasty bits that do not. For example, nowhere in the bible is slavery condemned. In fact, it is supported by both God and Jesus in various passages. These passages were used by white slavers in the colonial United States to justify their abhorrent business practices. In the modern world, you wouldn’t find too many people arguing that slavery is anything other than wrong. The bible is also a cover to cover manifesto for sexism, as women were viewed as little more than the property of men.

If morality is absolute and the result of divinely inspired scripture, then why have we abandoned 99% of its tenets? Why do we not still stone people to death for mild infractions? Why have we abandoned slavery? Why don’t we still sacrifice animals for a ‘sweet savour unto the lord?’ Why are women no longer considered the property of men?  Because morality is not an absolute concept, and what is considered right and wrong has evolved substantially since biblical times (for the better).    

It’s well past time that humanity abandoned such infantile nonsense. Secular morality is much simpler, and makes a hell of a lot more sense. Do whatever you want, but don’t encroach on the rights of others. Geddit?