Actually, I am a Christian and yet I would agree with virtually EVERYTHING that you wrote here.

Including the “lack of an internal moral compass” section. There is a saying that you see someone’s TRUE character only when they THINK no one is watching. That to me is the definition of someone’s “internal moral compass” — if they act the same way (doing the same amount of work for example) regardless of whether someone is watching or not, then at least in regard to that issue (work-ethic in my example) they have a solid INTERNAL moral compass.

But where I think you err (perhaps this is me inferring something you did not intend to imply) is in imagining that this is a problem unique to Republicans or to “Religious Right Christians.” In fact, the lack of a solid internal moral compass is visible in men and women across the entire spectrum of politics, and the entire spectrum of “faiths” including atheism and agnosticism.

I think it is an example of the human condition, and that those who are ambitious (where ambition = seeking of power for the sake of having power) and/or avaricious (avarice = seeking of wealth for the sake of wealth) are inherently LACKING in a moral compass strong enough to overcome or overrule those failings.

Yet we are surrounded by people who define success as those who reach for and attain positions of power (rather than viewing those offices as places for servants… and spare me the lip service) and equally or more so those who attain positions of great wealth and/or fame.

Contentment in one’s current station removes the temptations of ambition, avarice, and seeking of fame — knowing they are all frauds.

Thus the wise man is not to be found in the governor’s mansion, but in the back woods cabin, or small townhouse. The wise woman is to be found not as the CEO of a corporation, but running a small business interacting with people and working on things she enjoys.

Yet to our modern world, people who do NOT seek power, fame, and great wealth… are often seen as “slackers” or even “crazy” — hence we miss the wisest amongst us.

Thanks for the article… wonderful food for thought.

Have you seen and considered this man’s story.

I can’t find any controversy in your last point being made here. In fact, I hold the same opinion: those religious people act good only because they believe they’re being closely watched by their god and rewarded or punished according to their actions. Without any god, they would be free to do any sort of harm. And on the other hand, people like you and me who have a strong value scale, we know what’s good and what’s bad with no need to stick to sacred text or commandments. It’s just a human rights thing.

I agree with you that the lack of a moral compass is seen across the spectrum, however; from personal observation and experience I believe that today’s Christianity causes it to be rampant among its followers.

Anytime a human is forced to choose between an accepted belief and the internal moral code it violates it further pushes down the innate instincts for good that we have. This can, of course, occur in other situations but it certainly is occurring in Christianity today.

I appreciate your comments and thank you for taking the time to visit us and let us hear your thoughts.

Summer

It’s that inability to develop an internal moral compass that’s the problem. Like a child who is never allowed to cross the street alone, and therefore never learns to be independent, religious children are raised unable to decide morality except in terms of god.

THIS is the strongest reason why religion is harmful to society.

This is a very accurate list. Bob Altemeyer’s studies into authoritarian behaviour is a good backup for this.

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/

Hey i just want to said “thanks” for this article. I thoroughly enjoy it because it exactly what I believe in, especially the last point you made about Christians regard everyone else who don’t follow the holy book as sinners. I was raised a buddhist and was taught by my religion to accept every one, regardless of their religion. When I was a teenager, I decide to learn more about Christianity and read the Bible, and to my surprise, what I was doing all along was WRONG ACCORDING TO GOD! I worshipped a “false idol”, thus ensuring me a one-way ticket to hell, regardless of whatever good deeds I did. i’m sorry but if I have to go to hell because I refuse to sit in church every sunday listen to how I will be damned for life instead of living my life and just listen to my own moral compass, then hell sounds pretty good to me.

You think they lack any respect for civil rights? Dude, that is SO relative and subjective. Do you think polygamy should be legal? Prostitution? You’re also forgetting the religious motivations of our founding fathers, believing our rights to be G-d given, or of the abolitionist movement, for the same reason.

I don’t think other religions or atheism lack morality or a civil rights-friendly attitude; I’m an atheist, an a Republican. But, to claim that somehow the beliefs in Christianity, simply because of a specific set of practices they don’t tolerate (unjustifiably, I believe), demonstrates Christianity’s lack of respect for civil rights is baseless. Every culture/community/ideology has its biases and preconceptions. Christianity, for all its shortcomings, is no different.

The last point is ridiculous, and it stems from many (though most certainly not all) of atheists’ attacks on religion, which is condemning the sins of believers. Speaking on behalf of Christianity, I can safely say that murderous and other sins that believers practice are called sins exactly because the religion condemns it, meaning that we sinners do such things in defiance of our teachings and as a hypocritical act, not as a consequence of them.

I’ve heard many say that were it not for the laws that we have today, they would do many unworthy acts, and simple evidence of that is when anyone jumps the subway without paying, or anything along those lines. Above that, surely we all realise here that, for better or worse, most Western codes of law are based on Judeo-Christian beliefs, exactly because they were the moral codes of the times when these countries were being built. In many ways we are to thank those beliefs for stemming the societies we have today, for sure. A contrast can be made with Saudi Arabia, where the belief code is different, and similarities drawn with countries that are deemed “Westernised”.

The great thing about criticism is that it’s like looking into a mirror. When we find faults elsewhere, surely we can look into our own selves and identify similar faults that need to be corrected. It isn’t so much that we lack an internal moral compass, it’s that we are not yet perfect. We can identify the better paths of living, the challenge is living them. I doubt any of us can claim to hold such strong integrity that it never flaws.