John Loftus and Russell Blackford make the case for atheist morality
Many years ago I knew a devout Catholic woman who would tolerate no questioning of her faith, because—full stop—she was eager to see her mother again in heaven. I recently was told that she visits psychics to communicate with her mom. Of course, the hope of gaining eternal life has fueled many religions, Christianity especially. In the case of this woman, catechism had shaped her mind so thoroughly, so rigidly, that “thinking outside the Catholic box” was never an option for her later in life. I have no doubt whatever that she is a good person, but fanatically holding on to ancient superstitions is not a great benefit for humanity.
Christianity is cluttered with alarming examples of superstition and magical thinking: that a god required a human sacrifice to enable it to forgive human sin; that a major god gets his thrills by being adored and worshipped by humans; that humans can get in touch with their gods through prayer, i.e., ask for favors or plead with gods to modify their plans. That gods work in mysterious ways that we cannot understand, that gods have master plans that we’re not smart enough to understand, that “he has the whole world in his hands.” Ecclesiastical bureaucracies—across hundreds of Christian brands—have been promoting these concepts for centuries.
And they benefit from the apparent reluctance of the devout to move beyond what they were taught about their favorite deities in Sunday school and catechism. Russell Blackford, whose essay, Living Without God, is found at the end of John Loftus’ 2014 anthology, Christianity Is Not Great: How Faith Fails, states this at the beginning:
“…I will take it as established that atheism is the most reasonable answer to the God question. That is, someone who has thought carefully and honestly above the existence of gods, including the Christian deity, should end up unconvinced (to say the least!) that such beings exist. There is a vast literature on that subject…” (p. 462)
And it is precisely the “vast literature on that subject” that the devout have little interest in exploring, studying—bringing their knowledge of our world and cosmos up to date. Curious humans have discovered so much about how the world actually works, what our place in the cosmos is. The more these discoveries are appreciated, the more likely it is that belief in god(s) will falter, or as Blackford states, the people who learn “should end up unconvinced” that deities exist. There is also vast literature in Christian academia on the distressing flaws and contradictions in the gospel depictions of Jesus. The devout are unaware of that as well.
The claims promoted by the ecclesiastical bureaucracies lose their impact and power. One claim that I didn’t mention above is that the Bible plays an essential role in defining morality. The devout may assume that this must be true—that is, if they’ve not bothered to actually read the Bible. And have not studied Christian history. John Loftus, in a major essay, published by Academia.edu, An Atheist Morality without God, states the following—this is a long quote, but an important statement:
“…Christian theists have gotten their self-described ‘objective morality’ wrong in some significant ways when it comes to the Dark Ages, Crusades, Inquisitions, Witch-hunts, Colonialism (with the destruction of indigenous people), slavery, the subordination of women, homosexuality, and many others, as shown by philosophers, scientists, and other experts. So if morality is indeed objective in the sense that 2+2 = 4, how could believers get it so wrong, for so long, inflicting so much pain and suffering upon others and themselves? While religions do many things that are good, the bad deeds done also need to be considered, despite having a God who allegedly commands them to do good, grants them the motivation to do good, and provides them the power to do good, but who have historically failed to do the good. From the history of the church it looks exactly like relativism. God is the relativist.” (page 8)
Basing morality on the Bible is far from easy. It's not hard to figure out that the god portrayed in the Old Testament has the temperament of a tantrum-prone toddler. The most famous example is the horrendous story of the great flood, in which he drowns all the people on the earth—except for one family—because he failed to create humans perfectly. He also hardens Pharoah’s heart to set the stage for more killing and cruelty, for example, killing all the firstborn in Egypt. There is also alarmingly bad Jesus-script in the gospels: to be a disciple of Jesus you have to hate your family and life itself (Luke 14:26); Jesus didn’t come to bring peace, but a sword—and families will be torn apart (Matthew 10:34-36). There is no way to verify that Jesus said such vile things. Jesus-script was created by the gospel authors to advance their own theological obsessions.
The devout seem to be unaware that serious thinkers have been pondering morality for a long time—and have arrived at helpful standards.
Blackford has stated the case well:
“You are much more likely to lead a varied, exciting, and flourishing life if you are concerned about the happiness of other people than if you are focused on getting the better of them. Among a group of people who care about each other’s happiness and success, everyone gains.” (pp. 475-476)
“…we can observe widespread agreement across human societies that it is better for everyone if we cultivate, teach, and promote such dispositions of character as compassion, honesty (including intellectual honesty), kindness, generosity, courage, and reasonableness (in the sense of being willing to make compromises and to settle disputes as peacefully and amicably as we can).” (p. 476)
“… at the same time, we should criticize traditional moral ethics that seem arbitrary and cruel. All of this requires thinking for ourselves, not uncritically accepting what we were taught as children.” (p. 476)
John Loftus makes the following important points:
“As we continue to merge into bigger and bigger societies we just might eventually share a world-wide common morality as a species. If pre-human species are known to share some type of morality, why should it be surprising that human beings as a species have some kind of basic, common morality, especially as we jettison religion from our brains? Religion, as a source of morality, must first end.” (p. 12)
“There is therefore no mystery to morality. If any person or any class of people is harmed then it harms us all in varying degrees. To cause harm or to allow harm will harm us all. Doing good or allowing for good, is good for us all. The moral principle we can all adopt is that harming people is morally wrong and doing good is morally right.” (p. 15)
“This life is all there is: a short blip of existence in the cosmos. So it makes what I do of utmost importance because this life is all there is. I should therefore be motivated to give all I have today, for this is all I have. By contrast, believers with an irrational hope for an afterlife ‘in the sky’ have, all too often sacrificed this life for that ill-founded hope. Most of their lives have been too heavenly focused to be any good here on earth.” (p.16)
“Let me reiterate that the only reasonable ethical systems are secular ones. So it doesn’t really matter which ethical system atheists adopt, since all reasonable ethics are secular. As long as one or more of them succeeds without too many intractable problems, the problem of atheist ethics is also solved.” (p. 16)
“I just don’t think reasonable ethical evaluations should allow religious objections to destroy the ethics being considered. We should ignore and reject religious moralities that are obviously false.” (p. 18)
Which brings us back to the muddled mess we find in the Bible’s version of morality. Loftus reflected on his struggle with the Bible:
“I admit though, when I was a Christian I had an additional stumbling block to overcome, since I had to gerrymander the Scriptures to support moral positions. I chose to reinterpret the abominations we find in the Bible, like slave ownership, the inferiority of women, the so-called sin of homosexuality, and hell being an everlasting fiery torment.” (p. 17)
We don’t need the stumbling blocks. Morality should be divorced from scripture and superstitions, and can be defined by rational thought and full consideration of human needs. It can flourish when the gods are allowed to fade away.
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 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:
· Guessing About God (2023),
· 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.
· Everything You Need to Know About Prayer But May Not Want to Admit (2025)
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.
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