This is a question raised by Richard Dawkins and others in arguments about whether athiests have any good foundation for their ethics. The argument goes that Christian (or other religious people) say they wouldn't rape or murder even if they weren't Chrstians, and therefore their faith has no impact on their ethics. In reality, Christians simply do what everyone does - follow the moral zeitgeist.
The thing about this argument is that in part it relies on an element of surprised shame. If you're suddenly confronted with the question of 'Would you rape and murder if you weren't a Christian?' Of course your immediate response is 'No I wouldn't.' If you're not murderous now, it's hard to imagine becoming so. And no one wants to be thought of as a murderer being held back by a thin veneer of religion.
But as I've thought about this a bit, I'm convinced that my ethics would be different if I wasn't a Christian. It's hard to say exactly how. But knowing myself and also looking at our society, I think I would be more judgmental, less generous and I'm pretty sure I'd have the 'do whatever you want as long as it doesn't hurt anyone' attitude to sex.
I perhaps wouldn't immediately be rushing out to murder, rape or rob a bank. There are some very strong external motivations against those things. But I think I would lose my key motivation for resisting the root causes of murder, rape and robbery - hatred, lust and greed, and I'm sure they would begin to flourish in my life. And you never know where it would end up.
What do you think? Does faith make a difference to your ethics?
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And let's not forget that according to Jesus' definition we all are murderers - at least I know I am - I'm sure I've hated someone (not merely found them tiresome / frustrating), at least at some point in my life.
ReplyDeleteMy ethics may or may not be immediately different, however the state of my soul and its eternal destiny definitely would be.
Definitely brother, definitely.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes shudder at the person I'd be without Christ. Perhaps I'm one of the few 'evil' ones that would be horribly different if not for Him.
Just stumbled onto your blog from another site. This is a great post and thought provoking
ReplyDeleteThanks for your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI think unless you've very recently started to follow Christ, it's actually very hard to imagine what you'd be like if you weren't. Seemingly small decisions can sometimes have a big impact on your life.
But I guess the point is Christians need to be a bit more open about the impact Christ has on the direction of our lives.
I would be in the mafia - or something equally nefarious. Maybe.
ReplyDeleteDon't know if anyone still calls you Smiley. But I reckon if you were in the Mafia that name would definitely be resurrected!
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