Having it Both Ways

Listening to the Christian sales pitch about why I should believe their religion, I hear about the power of prayer and how Christianity makes people more moral. Concerning prayer, there are actual verses about asking and receiving, and there are plenty of people claiming that their god gave them what they prayed for. However, if you pray and don't get it, it must be because god knows better. God is really like a parent who has more information than you, you might be told. Basically, there is no way to determine if any given prayer "works" because the answer could be no. And there are excuses aplenty: you shouldn't pray for selfish reasons, prayer is not really a request but a meditation, prayer is to connect you to god, and so on. But, I'd like to point out again there are plenty of people thanking god for doing something specific: finding car keys, healing them, letting them get a job... They attribute to their god the one saved person in a disaster in which many people perish. They thank god for passing over their home in a tornado that destroyed most of a town.

The other claim is that we can only be moral with god. Without Christianity, people would do all manner of heinous actions. Some Christians actually claim that they would murder, steal, or rape without their religion. I don't really believe them, but if it's true, they should make sure to stay in their religion.

Among my beefs with this claim is that there are plenty of Christians who do commit heinous actions: raping children, as one of the big ones. There are also cases of stealing, tax evasion, and misappriation of funds. They sometimes are simply hypocrites claiming that homosexual acts offend god but then going off and indulging in said acts on the sly.

Now, go ask a Christian to explain how Christianity did not actually make those people more moral. They will hedge. They say, "Well, it doesn't just happen. Churches aren't filled with saints. We're all sinners."

So let me get this straight, I need Christianity to be a moral person, but I may not become moral even though I accept the precepts of that religion?

Really though, Christianity does not make humans any more moral. Wanting to be moral makes people more moral. And Christianity does not have a good basis for deciding moral actions. Their rule is: if god says it's okay, you can do it; if it makes god angry or sad, you shouldn't do it. This is not a real basis for moral action. Morals are at the whim of a supreme being who owes no one explanations.

And by the way, Christians don't exactly agree on what god wants people to do. In fact, it's pretty common to see god agreeing with the person making the claim. The Bible can be made to say anything you want. Sure, you can claim those who don't agree with you aren't true Christians, but from an atheist point of view, I don't see how to decide who is or isn't "right with god" so I just accept the label.

I still prefer to gauge morality in terms of harm and benefit, in terms of what makes our lives, our communities, and our world better and what does the opposite. You don't need a god for that. You don't need an ancient book. You just need to want to be moral.