I always hear Christians speak about morality and hold the Bible up as the standard for morality. But is the Bible the standard of morality in our modern culture here in the USA? I say NO...the Bible is not our standard of morality.
The God of the Bible endorsed slavery....we do not practice slavery.
The God of the Bible endorsed genocide...we do not.
The God of the Bible treats women as second class citizens....we do not.
The God of the Bible endorses a Monarchy....we are a Democracy.
The God of the Bible endorses death for Homosexuals and Heretics....we do not.
The God of the Bible is prejudiced against the handicapped....we make every effort to accommodate the needs of the handicapped.
I suppose if I thought a little more I would think of more immoral practices of the God of the Bible
Love your list. I copy/pasted it to my Facebook page, since I still have religious people lurking on it.
That's great. I think it really makes an important point. @birdingnut
Some fundamentalists have actually thought this through and believe without irony that they are that depraved (because everyone is). Their operant conditioning in things like the doctrine of utter depravity is such that they really believe they would eventually devolve to an animal-like state of selfishness and sociopathy if it weren't for the indwelling spirit of god. The way I experienced this (to the extent I thought about it) was that this would happen quite in spite of myself or the "better angels of my nature".
However ... they also don't think this belief is flimsy or unreal or made up. They are also conditioned to believe god actually dwells within them and is creating a new nature that loves good, god and other people ... despite all evidence to the contrary. As such they are not only okay with these memes -- they are smug and self-assured about them.
So Amanda is right, but she's only going to make every hundredth fundie stop and think about this and most of those won't think very long or hard. The rest, the ones with "fundashields of determined ignorance" in good working order -- it will just bounce off of. Such is the power of operant conditioning, social reinforcement, and constant anti-intellectual, anti critical thinking propaganda.
My response to this statement is, Would you feel more comfortable with someone whom believes they will be held accountable for their actions in thier one and only life that commits murder, or someone who believes they will be "just" forgiven and be rewared with Heaven?
Your point is well-taken, the flip side of utter depravity is grace (unmerited favor). So these folks not only believe that humans are inherently corrupt and evil but for the grace of god, but the grace of god is unconditional. In fairness they don't think god approves (even in a nudge-wink fashion) of any sin, much less murder, and some even think you can loose your salvation in some circumstances, and of course there's Catholic purgatory and so on. But you're right, if in theory any of history's mass murderers could after the fact repent (as Jeffry Dahmer did for example) then there are no real incentives to be good either.
@mordant Well said. I do remember the cognative dissidence of, "you should be a good human and if you mess up you will be forgiven anyway." It was difficult to understand as a child and just unreasonable as an adult that expects to be held accountable for my actions.