Religion and Ethics
I was reading Simon Blackburn's Ethics: A Very Short Introduction today. In the first part of the book, the author elaborates seven threats to ethics. The first, and in my mind most important, is religion. In order to illustrate the cherry picking that religious people do when selecting morals and ethics from the Bible, the author quotes a letter of sorts which had been going around the Internet (the book was first published in 2001, and I have never read this fictional "letter" before, but will take his word for it.) This is one of the best and funniest pieces of sarcasm I've read in some time.
Dear Dr. Laura,
Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from you, and I try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind him that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the specific laws and how to best follow them.
a. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord (Lev. 1:9). The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. How should I deal with this?
b. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as it suggests in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?
c. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness (Lev. 15: 19-24). The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.
d. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may buy slaves from the nations that are around us. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify?
e. I have a neighbor who insists on working the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?
f. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination (Lev. 10:10), it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this?
g. Leviticus 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?
I know you have studies these things extensively, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.
3 Comments:
Dawkins in his new book outlines just how ridiculous it is for a religious person to tell an atheist his morals and ethics are either flimsy, non-existent and contradicatory to scriptures. However the ones with a contradictory and flimsy morality are religious people themselves, they pick and choose which passages of the scriptures fulfills their metaphysical needs and discard whatever they might find too dogmatic. This is the illusion of religious moderation (and this applies to all faiths), you simply cant pick and choose your scriptures because by doing so your a)contradicting your very own scriptures and b)you're defying God's. The so called extremists are the ones actually properly interpreting them :)
* and by b) I meant defying God's will!
Absolutely. I haven't gotten around to God Delusion yet (but will in the coming weeks... when I get the time... so many books to read for class). Harris also mentions this cherry-picking in Letter To A Christian Nation when he talks about the stone-throwing and stuff like that. I'm sure Dawkins looks at it more in-depth given the size differences in his and Harris' book. :)
Post a Comment
<< Home