Moral (God) – Immoral (Not God)

Great blog Dagoods – I couldn’t agree more with a lot of your points concerning the state of Christianity (I mean in a general sense obviously).

“He wanted to engage in useless pontification as to all the reasons Dr. Moore was quite certain atheists are atheists. (And apparently the reason for evolution, too—so we can sin!)” (Dagoods)

I was expressely interested in this point – it’s also something I am delving more into concerning theology. The idea that people leave the faith to commit sin – this has some scriptural basis – but I think the majority of the Christian faith has muddied this one beyond reason.

In my studies, I am finding this pattern:

Moral (God) – Immoral (Not God)
Good (God) – Evil (Not God)

The church does not actually interpret the NT based on this motif – a motif that seems to shine through in Tanakh – and I think is also in the NT.

So Mohler’s inquisition is actually flawed logic. He is using someone’s label (or belief system) to identify them or say they are ‘evil and need help’ – when one cannot go by a person’s beliefs (or label) to determine this at all. It’s not even a biblical idea per se.

So Mohler equates beliefs with state of person. Now it is true what one believes becomes their likely action – but in this case – being an atheist or beleiving in ‘no God’ is actually not an action – just a mind belief. The belief does not cause you to do something – whether good or bad – it’s a belief about the nature of something (and in some sense, in the biblical sense, not really a belief – since it contains no moral concern to it).

And this is what the bible adresses through and through – that belief in God is accompanied with actions and non-belief in God is accompanioed by actions. So if someone leaves God – they are usually committing actions against humanity and God (ie: shedding innocent blood or stealing). The beliefs of the bible are directly tied to the actions of the person – defining them that way versus definition via some label or belief system per se (beliefs that mean nothing like – God is 3 in 1).

The bible is explictly overly concerned with morality/law in concerns to one’s faith in God. Actually, and this is my opinion, faith is determined in one’s actions more than in one’s beliefs alone (since in this era we have a variety of beliefs – some mean nothing and some mean something in terms of action). What you do defines you better than what you think.

Mohler is illogical in his discussion – not just because he was one sided and the bible actually teaches against doing that – but in that he thinks that what you believe alone makes you ‘good’ or ‘bad’ – in need of help or whatever. Although, sometimes this is true – in this case – about being an atheist – he is way off. You cannot determine someone in terms of their title or label – that is faulty thinking and very generalistic.

It may be true some atheists do commit bad acts – but the title alone does not mean they all do. So holding a belief does not mean you are ‘good or bad’…only your actions can truly reveal that. In this sense, the bible is concerned with moral and immoral – not so much with correct belief systems.