The Bible & Christian God are not the best source of morality

Sufficient is defined, in a previous debate[1], as being “a quantity that can fulfill a need or requirement but without being abundant”[2] and so I take up my opponents charge. Re: Other sources of morality Robert Hinde writes “Moral principles are based in human nature, but societies and their cultures change, leading to a limited differentiation of moral codes between societies.” in his paper entitled Law and the sources of morality.[3] The position he argues is that the elements of morality are products of evolution, social interaction, tradition and a number of other socially and culturally guided elements. In this paper he goes on to say: “Interestingly, the Hebraic Commandments enjoin children to honour their parents, but not the reverse. Presumably parental love was assumed, or the Commandments were written from the parental perspective. We shall encounter other instances of moral rules prescribed with self-interest later.” [3] No matter how you feel about the Christian bible, god and or his word you have to be aware of the moral teachings of civilizations going back into the centuries and millennia before the bible and the episodes of the Christ were authored. [4] One aspect of this discussion that is as yet taken for granted is what morality actually is… I will allow you to redefine it as you choose, but as a beginning and unrefined definition - Morality is a set of guidelines by which we are able to decide what we should do. Re: 10 commandments (and such) Not only can most people not list the 10 commandments, most of the 10 commandments have nothing to do with morality.[5] I am the lord your god, you shall have no other gods before me; you shall not make for yourself an idol; do not take the name of the Lord in vain; remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. These first four are not in any way pertaining to morality, let alone necessary to making moral decisions. Honor your father and mother; you shall not kill / murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife; you shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor. Redundancy aside, you can scoop all of these up into the golden rule (do unto others as you would have them do unto you), and be done with them. And even if you were to say that these are all very moral teachings you have to keep that even pastors commit adultery[6], so clearly that moral is not held in high regard. Re: The bible being a good source of morality If only. As has been debated here many times, I am sure, that is not the case. There is no citation within the bible that pushes for child molestation, spousal abuse, infanticide or racial positions to be abolished, but surely you agree that they are all morally bad. The bible is a tome of the times when it was written when the average life span was a fraction of our own and people had bigger problems than dealing with abuse or racism. Genocide is only referenced in the bible when it is enacted by the Christian god. Not to mention Lot and his daughters… it’s hard to find a moral teaching in the book through all of the filth and begats. 1. http://www.debate.org... 2. http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu... 3. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... 4. http://www.touregypt.net... 5. http://en.wikipedia.org... 6. http://www.scribd.com...