Atheists get their morality from society. Don't use the argument "Well most people are Christian in society!" because while the majority is Christian, the majority is ALSO secular. It's great that your morality comes from the Bible, but at the same time I could say your beliefs are immoral.
You could say anything really but what is the substance?
See? Look at that! Neither one of us can be "right" in saying if the morality of another person is good or bad in simple day to day things (we can all agree things like rape and murder are bad).
Wouldn't it be great if we could just pick and choose.
You want moral authority, and that's fine, but that authority can ONLY and I mean ONLY apply to the person who chooses to live under it. It can not apply to anyone else but yourself. Thus this authority has now... well it's lost it's authority.
I understand and never suggested that my views of morality should be applied on anyone, that wasn't the point that I was trying to make. The point I'm making is that as a believer in God, my morality comes from what He says. Anyone can reference the Bible and see my positions. In a sense it's transparent and is not self-generated or negotiable/changeable. If you claim your morality doesn't come from God or the Bible and instead comes from your feelings and experiences it's really not saying much. Morality is simply like laws. There's a difference between getting your laws from a higher authority and from penciling them yourself. That's all I was trying to point out nothing else.
This is the problem I had for so long with religion. It took me a long time to realize that God isn't (or I should say my interpretation of God) is not an authoritarian. Look at the differences between you and I. We both have very different interpretations of the Bible and what sin is, yet we both believe the core stuff about Jesus (accept his as our savior, he died for our sins, etc. etc.) so what does it REALLY matter if we live different lives if we both believe in Jesus?
Your taking this to a whole different tangent, the only question I was trying to provoke about morality is where do people derive it from. I never claimed or demanded that we must all follow God's morality to the tee. No one but Christ has lived a perfect life and everyone besides Him has fallen short of the mark. That doesn't mean as a believer that we should just ignore God's ideals and sin away, instead we should strive to have a heart like His. If you really love and admire someone, don't you naturally want to know and become more like them? The only difference in the interpretation between the two of us is that I accept God's whole word as truth and you choose and pick which parts are true. Yes Jesus died for us and we are redeemed through His blood but that doesn't mean we should purposefully sin, we are called apart from that. We are to be literally new creations, living new lives putting to death our old selves.
Romans 6:1-13
1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin-- 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
And don't say I twist Christianity or I'm not a real Christian (I prefer "Christ-follower" anyway) since that's not really getting us anywhere. My definition of Christian = accept Jesus and that's that. And if there WAS such a thing as a "real" Christian (Which I don't believe there's a right and a wrong way to do it as long as you accept Christ) and one like myself, who'd some say twists it around and makes it up to fit my needs.... well wouldn't you say it's better than not believing in anything?
What else would you call it then? If I told you that I think stealing is great and that I do it all the time and that God supports me stealing, what would you say? As for is it better than not believing in anything, I'd say no. You're missing out on the new creation you're supposed to be because you refuse to put to death your old-self. You're relationship with God can't grow when you're constantly and knowingly sinning against Him. Jesus was so much more than a ticket to the after-life, He's for this physical life too.
I always had the opinion that the Bible isn't the word of God, it's the word of man inspired and influenced by God. I only believe the red words are the word of God
But it's fine if you disagree.
The Bible is God's word, written down by human beings who believed and feared God.
I'm trying to be bipartisan lmao. Is it working? That's really my new goal now that I've quit smoking. Not to get so angry and passionate.
Actually yes
. Stay passionate, just flee from anger. Congrats on quitting smoking! Your lungs will appreciate it
.
So, why are things like murder bad? Well, I don't believe this is a complicated answer at all. Because it violates one's right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Look at that! I didn't even need to pull out a Bible
Why can't person number two be correct? Well, first of all is their definition of murder the same as the first persons? If it is, does person number two have any clinically diagnosed mental illnesses? If the answer is no, please see a second doctor.
Look at Sudan. Do all of those protesters have some kind of mental illness
?