Susuto

@eir574

“Atheists just base their moral codes on their responsibilities to other people, which they share with Christians.”

Perhaps, depending on the person, but the atheist has only his own inner desires and ideas from which to generate a moral code. He can look to others; but, in the end it’s his own desires that rule his moral code. The atheist creates his own moral authority by which to live.

The Christian looks, or should look, to God for the moral code AND the moral authority by which to apply it to his life. If God didn’t care about Christians applying His moral code, then Christians could create their own moral authority and be right no matter what they chose.

“If a Christian’s interpretation of that absolute moral code is relative and his adherence to it is not guaranteed, then how is that all that much different than a moral code based on reason alone rather than on the bible?”

It would be different in that the Christian’s moral code, from God, would still be morally binding and answerable for when that Christian passes on from this world.

Look, many aspects of Christianity, such as this moral code issue, only make sense when other more basic premises are considered and acknowledged.

It’s like math, I suppose. The theoretical math associated with quantum mechanics is NOT going to make sense at all until Calculus is accepted. And Calculus will not make sense until basic algebra is accepted.

Christian morality, ideas of good and evil, and other advanced theological concepts are not going to make sense or be logical reasonable until the basics of God’s existence are accepted.

“Both the Christian and the atheist are trying to figure out their responsibilities to other people, and both run the risk of wavering from their commitment to their moral codes. The Christian is trying to figure out his responsibility to his god as well, but not believing in god doesn’t mean that I’m not going to come up with a very similar set of responsibilities towards my fellow humans.”

Fair enough.

I suppose that, without an acknowledgment and acceptance of God’s existence and authority over humanity, few things more complicated can be understood and accepted, such as objective, absolute morality.