Atheist Tuesday: Does God Have to Obey the 10 Commandments?

If it is immoral for us to kill people, why is it okay for God to kill people? Doesn’t God keep His own commandments? And if He doesn’t keep His own commandments, then what does it mean to call such commandments an absolute when God Himself doesn’t have to keep them? And, if they are not absolutes, then why do we have to keep them? Then one begins to wonder, maybe God’s rules are not necessary, they are just things He cooks up for us that apply to us and mess up our fun. This is a tact that people take in raising this particular issue. So, how are we to take the commandments seriously?

The first thing in answering the objection is to make sure we understand exactly what the commandment says. “Thou shalt not kill” is actually a misquote.

Atheist Tuesday: The Unbeliever’s Soapbox

I thought, as a change of pace, that I would let an atheist have a shot. Here, without further ado, is an atheist’s answer for morality without God, by a man whose Web name is Vagon. (I won’t have time to write my own exceptions to this very selfish perspective, but  I do encourage you readers to offer your own.)

So Steve Sanchez has been suggesting that atheists have no grounds by which to judge Ted Bundy’s serial killings as immoral. A commenter under the handle Ryan Shirtz then asserted that atheists cannot logically support morality apart from God and cannot objectively define good and evil. He then said, “Show me any objective proof under a truly atheistic worldview that Ted Bundy’s actions are evil.” Finally another commenter, Dennis, suggested that without God all you are left with are subjective values. [He] later implied that all morality required a higher authority. You can view the chain of thought under Steve’s post here.

Despite several attempts to provide the theists with some objective ways to approach morality, they continued to assert that atheists had none, so I asked Steve if he’d be willing to have me guest post on objective morality without religion and he accepted, providing the post was interesting and provocative enough. I can guarantee neither, but this is that post and it will mean that Steve and his commenters can have no excuse for their continued assertions that atheism has no objective morals.

Evangelism Gone Wrong? Part 3: An Atheist’s Complaint

A frequent atheist contributor to this blog has taken exception to the way we evangelize in public, and is also disturbed at some of the places we do it. This atheist is thoughtful and reasonable, but does she make a valid point? I answer her concerns afterward. (Read original comments in context here. Start at part 1 of the series by clicking here.)

perdita wrote: “[T]he more I read here the more I’m convinced that your evangelizing is just a way for you to feel good about getting into people’s way, being rude, and creating conflict.”

Wrong places to preach, according to perdita, were outside beer gardens, inside elevators, the DMV. “When you do that,” she explained, “you’re just being a passive-aggressive bully. Yeah—and don’t preach to kids unless their parents are there and okay it.”