Christianity and Morality Don’t Work Very Well Together

David Eller, PhD explains why

In earlier articles I’ve mentioned this confession by a devout elderly Catholic—she told it to me herself—but it’s always worth repeating: “Our priests told us never to think about what we had learned in catechism.”  It came to mind when I saw a meme on Facebook this week: 
 
“Want to join me in church next Sunday?”
“Sorry, I’m an atheist. I can’t pretend to have faith in such a misogynistic, homophobic, fear-inducing system.” 
“I don’t want to think about that.”
“That’s why it works.”
 
There is a major disinclination on the part of devout churchgoers to think about the current state of Christianity, the immoral behavior of the church over so many centuries, and the logical fallacies preached from the pulpit.
 
 
One of those fallacies is that the Christian faith represents, promotes, superior morality. This claim is thoroughly punctured by Dr. David Eller’s article that John Loftus posted on this blog a few days ago, “Christianity Does Not Provide the Basis for Morality.” This is actually Chapter 13 in the 2010 Loftus anthology, The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails.
 
[Yes, please do read the article as posted on the blog. But also get a copy of The Christian Delusion, paperback or Kindle. Among its fifteen essays are those that stand out as classics, exact explanations of Why Faith Fails. For example:
·      Valerie Tarico, Christian Belief through the Lens of Cognitive Science
·      Hector Avalos: Yahweh Is a Moral Monster
·      Richard Carrier, Why the Resurrection Is Unbelievable
·      John Loftus: At Best Jesus Was a Failed Apocalyptic Prophet]
 
The devout faithful seem largely unaware of the beliefs and behavioral codes of other religions, even other brands of Christianity. Hence the confidence that their own version of morality is superior. Eller opens his article with a comparison of morality with grammar. 
 
“The person who utters a statement like ‘English provides the only basis for grammar’ either understands very little about English (and language in general) or grammar, or the person is expressing his or her partisanship about language (i.e., pro-English)—or, more likely, the speaker is doing both. Thus, the person who utters a statement like ‘Christianity provides the only basis for morality’ either understands very little about Christianity (or religion in general) or morality, or the person is expressing his or her partisanship about religion (i.e., pro-Christianity)—or, more likely, the speaker is doing both.” (pp. 347-348) 
 
“But, as a savvy responder, you would answer that Christianity is certainly not the only religion with morality. You would add that morality is not limited to religion: understood broadly as standards for behavior, many phenomena have a morality, from philosophy to business.”  (p. 348)
 
Moreover, “Christian” morality is all over the place. There are so many conflicting varieties of the Christian faith, and huge disagreements about what is moral and what is not. Many denominations ordain women, but Pope Francis has bluntly stated that this will never happen in the Catholic church. Denominations also differ on whether abortion is a sin, on the legitimacy of divorce; they disagree as well on the use of contraception and birth control. Eller mentions several eccentric Old Testament rules, and notes that “most modern Christians, if they have even heard of these rules, do not obey them and do regard them as ‘moral’ worries.” (p. 355) He also notes that “…some Christians think that dancing is bad, while others do not; some think that coffee or alcohol are bad, while others do not.” (p. 354)
 
It is also a fundamental violation of morality for clergy to ask parishioners not to think about what they’ve been taught about the faith since they were toddlers. Here’s another quote I’ve shared before. I once asked a prominent Italian TV journalist: “It is really possible that all the priests and nuns in the Vatican really believe all the goofy Catholic dogma?” His answer was direct and practical: “Oh, maybe only about half of them do, but don’t forget, it’s a business.” Clergy earn their livings promoting their particular versions of the faith, but how can discouraging thinking—in the interest of understanding reality—not be immoral? How does this not qualify as a scam? 
 
One section of the article is titled, Morality Without Christianity. In four pages Eller discusses morality as understood by Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. “Every ancient and tribal religion included its own moral standards, some similar to Christianity, some foreign to Christianity, some absurd to Christianity. And the feeling was mutual.” (p. 358)
 
In his four-page section titled, Morality Without Humanity, Eller lists quite a few works by scholars who have provided insights into how morality evolved. “The core of this research is that ‘morality’ is not utterly unique to humans but has its historical/ evolutionary antecedents and its biological bases. ‘Morality’ does not appear suddenly out of nowhere in humans but emerges gradually with the emergence of certain kinds of beings living certain kinds of lives… just as some prehuman beings have ‘linguistic’ capacities, some prehuman beings also have ‘moral’ capacities.” (p. 362)
 
But Christians cannot accept the idea that a god is missing from the picture: our god is the source of our morality, despite the annoying reality that these devout folks cannot agree on what is moral and what isn’t. As Eller notes:
 
 “What is important is that humans are inveterate agent-detectors, looking for will or intention or purpose or goal-oriented behavior in each other and in the world around them. And we tend to find it, whether or not it is there. Thus, the characteristic feature of religion is the claim that there are nonhuman and superhuman agents in the world, lacking some of the ‘qualia’ of humans (like bodies or mortality) but possessing the most important one—mind or personality or intention.” (p. 350)
 
In his conclusion, Eller states:
 
“We have proved that Christianity is not the only basis for morality, since religion of any kind is not required for morality nor is humanity even required. Let the silly and biased claim never be uttered again…It is humans and only humans who must struggle and negotiate and compete to arrange ‘moral’ affairs, but then we were always alone on this mission, and religion—as history plainly and painfully shows—was never much help anyhow.” (pp. 364-365)
 
 

David Madison was a pastor in the Methodist Church for nine years, and has a PhD in Biblical Studies from Boston University. He is the author of two books, Ten Tough Problems in Christian Thought and Belief: a Minister-Turned-Atheist Shows Why You Should Ditch the Faith, now being reissued in several volumes, the first of which is Guessing About God (2023) and Ten Things Christians Wish Jesus Hadn’t Taught: And Other Reasons to Question His Words (2021). The Spanish translation of this book is also available. 
 
His YouTube channel is here. At the invitation of John Loftus, he has written for the Debunking Christianity Blog since 2016.
 
The Cure-for-Christianity Library©, now with more than 500 titles, is here. A brief video explanation of the Library is here.