GENESIS wrote:

Where does atheism get their ethics and moral values from?

Good question, Genesis.

As a Christian, I can get morals from the Bible. Its ideas are profound and I think everyone should try to implement them in life. Who could argue with "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," right? And don't kill, don't steal, good solid stuff like that. Now there is a widely accepted idea that some verses of the Bible are not okay to follow because, basically, we don't feel like following them anymore. That's just not Biblical or Christlike. I mean, those verses are in the Bible and Christ said not one word of the Law shall be negated by his teaching. So I, and I think you should do this too, do stone witches sometimes. But you have to be really careful because the law of man and the law of God do not always align. Like when I knew one of the teachers at Jeremiah's school was a witch, I had to throw rocks at her from the bushes when nobody was looking. I was falsely betrayed by an anti Christian, but it is better to lose a hand or an eye than to lose the kingdom of heaven.

But the point is that on Christianity, there is a good solid basis for moral behavior. The Lord, the Creator of the universe, has told us to do certain things. It's just obvious that we should do them. One time Jeremiah was telling me that he didn't want to go to church three times a week any more, since the pastor gives the same sermon at all three services. But I reminded him that Jeremiah, I am your father and I made you, so you have to do what I say. I remind my kids of this a lot because it is a good solid moral principle that everyone should pay more attention to. But it's not just that God created us. I mean, God is also good by definition, so his commands are double obligatory or "super good." 

On atheism, the only real basis for moral behavior is one's own well being. But how do we define "well being," right? And why act for my own well being? It just makes no sense. Or maybe the basis for morals is my moral intuitions. But why follow those? I just see no force to either of these positions. John Calvin tells us that the eyes of the non elect are blind to the truth. I don't know if that's true, but things like this make me think seriously about it.

So good question. I hope you get some interesting responses here.

Cheers,

Dan Handsome

The Discovery Institute

Thomathy, let me tell you a story about a joke.

One day I was walking down the hall of the Discovery Institute. Have you ever been to the Discovery Institute, Thomathy? We have pictures of crocoducks all along the walls, in bright colors and glorious detail. Hundreds and hundreds of crocoducks swimming, flying, mating, nurturing their young. Anyway one day I was walking down the hall of the Discovery Institute and who did I see but Michael Behe. I'm impressed with his body of philosophic and scientific work but the man is really something in person. He is a pure mountain of manflesh, with wonderful well defined abs, btw his shirt was off, and a manly booming voice that would suit the angel of the same name.

So what could I do but invite him to my home? We had dinner and I introduced him to my wife and children. Dinner was my wife's famous charbroiled chicken and grits, and my children were on good behavior for Michael Behe. We all had sex, and he cleaned up his stuff and was starting to go out the door. At the last moment I stopped him by putting by hand on his glorious manly bicep. I was going to speak but he turned around and the radiance of his eyes held me in place. He looked deep into my eyes, then smiled and said,

"Dan, I was kidding. This was a joke."

Cheers,

Dan Handsome

The Discovery Institute