Morality question / label question / stereotype?

Question

Short version: I read in a book last night written by Christians that secular humanists are going to hell because they don't believe in Jesus, and that their morality is always changing cause its not based on the absolute existence of God, but changes cause science is always changing the view of the world.

So my question is, do Christians really believe this? Do you really try and label me as a non-Christian? Do you really think people who aren't Christians don't have an absolute morality?

I think most Christians are decent people and know this stuff isn't true, but theres a part of our culture that is being given books like this and they believe this stuff without learning about other people.

Answer 1

I believe most people are good people no matter their beliefs or lack of beliefs.

Answer 2

No. I dont believe morality is only something based in a belief in God, Christ or Religion.

I think morality is changing, but that I believe is human nature. Lets consider as a moral homosexuality. They have ALWAYS been around, even way back in the Bible. Homosexuality is not a moral decline. Could our acceptance of it more and more as a society be a moral decline? No, as a matter of fact, bu accepting it as a practice, we would eliminate hatred and intolerance, almost becoming MORE moral creatures. Nothing, be it murder, intolerance, persecution, whatever, is a new thing. We have always had immorality.

Take the argument one step further. Could Christians themselves not be contributing to immorality, by the simple stance some hold so powerful against things?

Okay, coming down from the soap box. The idea books like these are making their hands into others who take it as fact without question, is nothing new. About half of Christians (and I am being WAY conservative) are those that take their own religion they were taught, or found, and ask no questions of it, so can it suprise you that if you give a book like that to one of them they will believe what it says, no questions asked?

Answer 3

First off I dont beieve there morality is ever changing nor do I believe there morality is worse than Christian morality...Now according to scripture We are all born in sin if not our own then an inherant sin but clearly we have all to say the least had an immoral thought...for instance i wish you were dead..or an impure thought...taken home a pencil from work..whatever each is the death penalty because the law is an absolute ..I do believe as the bible teachs that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God..but the only difference amoung us sinners is the difference God himself makes and this tranformation is not complete untill our resurrection...So in my opinion the world is equal all have sinned therefore I leave the Judgement of man to the one without sin....to make moral judgements concerning people is to say the least stupid God does not distinguish betwwen my sin and anyone elses sin...sin is sin jesus taught that it wasnt your deeds that makes the difference it is he who accepts atonement for his misdeads that will be forgiven> The atonement has been made by Jesus all we have to do is accept the price he paid. All of us lack the perfection required by the law if this were not true Jesus would not have had to die to pay the price.

Answer 4

Many religious people find it comforting to believe that their chosen faith has a monopoly on morality, that they are the only ones who "have it right." This is a very narrow view. While all religions deal with questions of ethics, religion is not synonymous with morality. Humanists don't rely on ancient texts written by people whose identities and motivations we can't know for certain, living in times and environments very different from our own. We try to live ethical, useful, compassionate lives by the application of reason, learning from the lessons of history and applying new discoveries to build a better world for ourselves and those who will come after. As our understanding of the universe and ourselves evolves, so might our ideas of morality. That our morality sometimes changes doesn't mean that it isn't valid. Humanists try to keep their minds open to new possibilities. This is the essence of progress.

Answer 5

Yes, many Christians have been taught that secular humanism is a dangerous belief system. Personally, I have found that the ethics of some secularists can be more reliable than the morality of some Christians. Perhaps this is because the secularists feel accountable only to their own self-respect, which can be irretrievably lost. Some Christians think they can offend their own moral code repeatedly, and be immediately forgiven by Jesus every single time. We tend to forget that the mercy of God is tempered by justice, and that it is folly to mock him.

Answer 6

I feel something is either true or false, right or wrong. With the bible being my guide, I think there's a lot of people who wear the christian moniker, but choose to live a life different than Christ prescribed. They can still be "good" people, but how could one have much hope when they don't follow the one they claim to? I don't believe in the hell thing just this Rom 6:23.

Answer 7

You ask a really good question here: I don't think it's fair to use labels like "non-Christian" to someone who may or may not be a believer. Everyone regardless of their belief is deserving of respect and shouldn't be labeled.
Books like the one you mention can be dangerous, because they fan the fires of judgment against others. Instead the focus of Christian writing should be on the inward change of the individual reading the book, not of judging others.

Answer 8

A true Christian who believes in a loving and merciful God wouldn't try to find ways of limiting God's mercy by saying who is going to Hell or not. A true Christian would not judge their fellow man because that's God's job. There are many good people out there who do good things for others who aren't Christian and I don't think their lack of faith makes them bad or makes them absent of morality.

Answer 9

I know you cant earn your way into heaven no matter how good you are. And you cant save your soul any other way but by Jesus.

I think the condition of a mans heart is between him and God, and no one else. And what a person believes they should believe enough to die for, because in the end we will all be dead, and all know who was right.

Everyone has a right to their opinion, but expecting people to think the same way, (whether religious, scientific or otherwise) and trying to make them do so either by guilt or force or ostracizing is foolish.

Science obviously has a role in human life, theres nothing that God didnt create, so obviously he wants us to discover our world and how it functions, and devise ways to make life better.

To condemn any person for their belief, or lack there of is not only ignorant but boorish. Its no ones business how a person lives, unless its directly harms you or someone who is otherwise helpless. But i dont see where scientists do anything more than formulate theory, and everyone is entitled to free thought. We're human after all... even Christians.

Answer 10

Without a moral law giver, where does the moral law come from?

To what absolute authority is an absolute moral law derived from for a secular humanist?

Science never changes truth, just exposes it.

Answer 11

Even Christian morality changes with science. Morality has to be adapted and rethought with every generation otherwise people would think that building skyscrapers was the work of the Devil and God would scramble the languages again.