Morality comes from evolution processes in society, not from the biblical God, Yahweh.

Thank you as well for posting this debate. Welcome to debate.org, I hope you can gain knowledge from this website. I know I have learned a lot from reading debates on this website. Good luck. Now lets begin. Western law is in fact heavily rooted in the Bible. For an example the settlers from Europe were escaping religious persecution in their own land. The single most important foundational doctrine in forming a civil government is what is called the "doctrine of man," or the "doctrine of human nature. Most of the Founders held to a biblical view that man is depraved, sinful and frail but, through Christ, capable of regeneration. That conventional Christian view of man was predominate among the Founders. Both James Madison and Alexander Hamilton used the term "depravity" to refer to man"s capability to do evil with political power (The Federalist, #37 and #78). To fully understand the influence Bible scripture had on the writing of the U.S. Constitution, you must read the Founders own words. Beginning with the Declaration of Independence, the writer"s spelled out very clearly whom they owed their obedience to and whom their ultimate trust laid. They acknowledged a Creator and that our rights come from Him and that governments are instituted to protect all of those rights. They then listed their grievances and why they wanted to be free and independent. The U.S. Constitution was the remedy for all of the grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence. Remember these men pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor when they signed their names to the document. The Constitution begins with the language "Blessings of Liberty" and "do ordain and establish" in the preamble and ends with the words "in the Year of our Lord September 17, 1787." Please take notice of the word, "our." The signers all agreed to this word and it implies that they were Christians. These are not just words; they have meaning and are an example of how much the Bible influenced the writers. They were men of faith, some more than others, but they were men that knew the power of prayer. During the Constitutional Convention Benjamin Franklin requested a break and called for prayer at a time when it was much needed. "You can not practice the Bible in the U.S to the fullest extent, those who do, would be seen as a terrorist and extremist. Stone a child to death for disobedience(Deuteronomy 21:18-21), Killing homosexuals(Leviticus 20:3), and being able to beat your slaves as long as they get up in a day or two(Exodus 21:20), and so much more immoral acts and punishments. These rule are not guideline to morality for us today, nor should be" It's important to note that first of all the laws of the Old Testament are not bounded by us today. Those laws were for the nation of Israel and God's people. However, with that being said you have to know the history behind said verses. You cannot cherry-pick verses with knowing the context that they were given in. That's like me taking a recipe for cake and only reading one line and wondering why it didn't turn out to be a cake. Simply we are saved my Jesus' grace and we have a new covenant. We are under new laws to follow in the New Testament and the laws of the New Covenant are followed literally. The Mosaic laws were for God's people living in a theocracy not us today. But lets refute the verses you cherry-picked : . Deuteronomy 21:18 indicates that the punishment was only meted out after a persistent refusal to heed both father and mother and after all discipline had failed. The parents have tried to deal with their son in a loving, firm way, but nothing worked. Verse 20 specifies that the son is stubborn in his rebellion. Not only is he recalcitrant, "he is a glutton and a drunkard." This is not a case of a child who misses curfew or plays ball in the house. This was a true menace, a child who is causing trouble in society and grieving his parents, possibly to the point of endangering them physically and financially. The punishment was not an impulsive act of anger or vengeance. Rebellion against one"s parents is direct rebellion against God. The law requiring rebellious children to be stoned to death was meant for extreme cases to protect God"s people. It would have been heartbreaking for parents to bear the responsibility of initiating such severe measures. However, the Bible never records this law being enforced. The commandment of Leviticus 20:13 to punish homosexuals is not applicable to Christians because it was not given to Christians. That commandment is not applicable to Americans because it was not given to Americans. This seems like a simple concept, and some people may wonder why I have to explain such a simplstic notion, but because the scoffers do not read the Bible, and remain willfully ignorant of what it says, they must have these simple concepts explained to them that we normally learn in children's Sunday school. So are Christians commanded to kill homosexuals? No. That commandment was not given to Christians. Does that mean homosexuality is acceptable to God? No. Homosexuality is still sin and abomination in the eyes of the Lord. Not only were the commandments to punish sin given to the children of Israel, and not to the Christians, but the punishment for homosexual sin (as well as all others) was taken on the cross by our Lord Jesus Christ. Those who accept Christ can be forgiven for their sins. Slavery in Bible is not the same slavery that has existed in past centuries. People were not enslaved based on race, or their nationality. People were enslaved based off of economics at the time. Slavery was a matter of social status. People sold themselves as slaves when they could not pay off of their debt. Doctors, lawyers and even politicians sold themselves into slavery to pay off their debt. The Bible is not a way to reform society but to salvation. The biblical point on issues is to approach from the inside out. A slave can be a brother of the Lord. Slave traders are seen as ungodly and sinful in the Bible. Slaves are actually referred to as "bondservants" and their are laws on their treatment. Morality comes from God because without God there is no basis for moral values. Without God we cannot be morally accountable for our actions. God serves as the reference point for our moral duties. The reason why we believe murder is wrong is because God willed it to be wrong. The objective morality is binding and valid whether you believe them or not. Social morality that you described is not independent of the way people think and believe because that would exemplify a subjective point of view. Objective morality goes as followed, for an example we all agree that slavery was an evil practice in America. Even though the people who carried it out thought it was right. Objective morality is binding and is always valid. If morality is truly based off of society/nature then we are accidental beings and byproducts. The atheist view holds for an example that rape is wrong and was not advantageous to society so therefore in the course of human development was seen as taboo. But it does NOT prove that rape is really wrong. In your atheistic view there is nothing really wrong with rape. Without God there is no absolute right or wrong, bad or good that imposes themselves on our moral conscious. The thing is objective moral values do exist, and denying it, is no better than denying what we see the in physical world. Murder, theft, cruelty are not just socially unacceptable behavior but they are moral abominations. You cannot spell good without God.