Latest Comment
(Bryan, Wed 1 May 2024, 20:40:57)
Something that has bugged me about believers' rationale toward where our moral considerations come from is that much of what they attribute to Christian belief is that which we can already demonstrate and understand through purely secular or naturalistic (social) means. Are we truly to believe that prior to Moses' tablets, the Sermon on the Mount, or any other Biblically accounted event, we didn't realize that we are social animals and it's likely best for humanity that we work together, in the one life we have, on the one planet we share? Taking credit for good behavior in humanity is a far, far stretch I'm not willing to grant.
However, when looking at the awful commandments throughout the Bible, they are not things that we as socially aware citizens of the natural, physical world would necessarily dare to own. "Stoning" someone to death is entirely a religious practice. I'm not surprised there are commandments toward this, as it's something we wouldn't necessarily come up with as a suitable way to deal with trivial happenings. We've evolved our understanding to proportion punishment to the crime. (We're more moral than the book that claims to own morality, ironically.)
Those against capital punishment could be on to something, though. Should the state truly have the right to execute someone as punishment for heinous crimes? I don't know. Maybe so, maybe not. Should we look toward the Bible for a solution? I don't think so. When "sin" is essentially any vague anti-God action or thought (yes, thought crime is a thing) and can be answered with the plucking of eyes or the amputation of appendages, I don't find myself too interested in using the Bible as a guidebook for what to do (but maybe what NOT to do).
The so-called "golden rule" is something any child using basic observation on the playground could come up with. With the exception of sociopaths who legitimately struggle with basic empathy skills, it's not difficult for us to understand that we simply do better when we work together toward a basic goal of well-being. "Loving" one's neighbors is not sage wisdom that only a divine entity could realize. It's very telling that the "best" commandment in the Bible is one that is so ridiculously basic that no book, holy or otherwise, would need to explain.
No Jesus, the Golden Rule is not equal to the law and the prophets
