The Paradoxical Nature of Christian Morality
There are many Christians I know personally who have a very rigid understanding of right and wrong. If the bible says it wrong, then you can't argue it, even if it contradicts reality. There are morals we can easily understand without requiring the existence of a higher power. Hurting another person is wrong, not because the bible says it is, but because we as humans have empathy and process when another person is hurt. So when a Christian says, "How do you know wrong from wrong without god?" the real question is, "Why DON'T you?".
I feel like I have to start completely from scratch in my journey to being a good Christian. There are just so many things about it that I personally disagree with. These things won't keep me from trying to pursue Christ, but they do keep me from other members of my religion one way or another. There are things about Christianity that are so widely accepted by theists that many people don't stop to think about why they believe something to be true. We, as Christians, have been taught how to think since we were young, and there isn't much room for questioning, either. The foundational truths of Christianity aren't based on facts, and many are archaic and out of touch with reality, and yet there are still many people defending it with their lives.
I have also observed that many Christians don't make morally correct decisions based on the idea that, "If I do this, I could hurt another person." They make decisions based on the idea that 'if I do this, I'll burn for eternity. With that thought process, we have people committing heinous crimes in the name of God. And you can't even look to God himself for moral direction either, it seems, because if we take every action he makes in the bible as accurate, then God also makes morally questionable (or downright evil) decisions too. God commits murder and genocide multiple times throughout the bible. Since we are also taught that God is morally superior to humans, then god's decisions couldn't be morally wrong. But if we actually applied what we know as bad as human beings with empathy to biblical situations, we would be able to draw our own understanding of God's actions, rather than being told. God's actions in the bible will always be justified because he's God, but I think we are thinking about God the wrong way.
God can be both the creator of the universe and morally grey. Both can be true at the same time. That's because morality as a concept isn't black and white and cannot be treated as such. When people forget about the nuanced and paradoxical nature of morality, they make bad decisions.
When taking biblical passages as fixed truth, people tend to neglect any other research. The bible is an archaic text, and there will be many old laws that are not only no longer applicable to the modern day but also disproven by scientific research. Some parents question if it is right to spank their child, and the bible says it is fine, and parents may neglect any other form of research on the topic of psychological effects of capital punishment.
When you've been told all of your life that reality is one thing, the odds are that you will be reluctant to change your views on reality ever. So, if you're told that all the answers to all your moral dilemmas are already in the Bible, you'll never feel the need to come to your own conclusions. You can't wrestle with complex issues with a fixed understanding of reality. I mean, sure, it's a lot easier to go through life without having to come up with your own way of thinking. But what a lot of people may not realize is, that way of thinking is harmful, and shutting down any attempt of critical thinking isn't right. It makes having a productive discussion with a devout Christian on almost any topic impossible because most Christians form their facts around what they already know to be the truth instead of taking facts and building their truth and beliefs around that.
