J'accuse! Jacoby's Off His Rocker
I usually like Jeff Jacoby, but his column today struck me as particularly nasty. He starts in the usual conservative mode of bemoaning the invisible “War on Christmas” and then immediately moves into the war on faith in general.
Jacoby then proceeds to stake his claim against atheists and all non-Judeo Christians in general.
Well, well, well. Not only does Jacoby deny that people who do not profess a faith cannot live by any sort of recognized, overarching code of moral or ethical behavior, but he insinuates that only through the Judeo-Christian (and I suppose, presumably Muslim) Lord God your Savior can you find any sort of redemptive meaning to this bleak a-moral vacuum. The billions of non-Judeo-Christian-Muslims out there are presumably living their wretched, unwashed lives in sin, without any sort of moral compass, probably killing each other and eating the flesh of their human brethren. After all, without the Lord God, cannibalism becomes acceptable. Yes, Jacob says atheists individually can be beautiful ethical human beings, but his implication is that human society as a whole cannot find moral guidence without the Word.
Are we talking about the same nation, Mr. Jacoby? The nation who professes in poll after poll they would not elect an atheist to the highest office? The nation whose members of Congress, upon having a Federal Court strike down the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance (which was an artificial addition in the 1950s to set ourselves apart from the Godless Communists, anyway), gathered on the steps of the Capitol in defiance and recited the pledge as is. Or the nation who has more churches per capita than any other in the world? A nation where public officials and courthouse witnesses are still sworn in on Holy Bible. The nation whose Evangelical voters turned out in droves to return a clearly incompetent President to White House, because he shared their values and he didn’t want to permit something as human as allowing gays to marry? A nation whose Republican Congress passed a Bill stopping the right-to-die death of one woman as a publicity stunt to appeal to Evangelicals. There is a war on Christmas here? In America? Or could it possibly be that perhaps, in the spirit of multi-culturalism, pluralism and the recognition that America is a diverse place, that American business, in an shamelessly capitalism appeal, put up banners like “Happy Holidays” and market cards without Christian imagery to appeal to the broadest market segment and to avoid making the assumption that everyone is Christian? Could it be that the American government, because of a little known clause known as the Establishment Clause, doesn’t officially step in to recognize or favor Christianity over the plurality of other religious beliefs that citizens may or may not hold?
Never mind the assertion that no moral code can exist without religious authority. Mr. Jacoby, anatomically modern humans appeared probably between 100,000 and 250,000 years ago. By 40,000 years ago, our ancestors had moved into Europe, Asia and Australia and by 10,000 years ago, humans had crossed the Bering Strait and into the Americas. However, Christianity only rudimentally appeared less than 2,000 years ago and was not codified until a few centuries later. Your target in your article is atheists, but that’s not what you write a few sentences earlier. You don’t write that religious faith, any religious faith can offer us a model for ethical living, something akin to what Ghandi said (without the spiteful disdain for atheists). You write “What society loses when it discards Judeo-Christian faith and belief in God is something far more difficult to replace: the value system most likely to promote ethical behavior and sustain a decent society.” Thus, Mr. Jacoby, though my anthropology may be suspect, I believe you are insinuating that for just 100,000 years of our history, there were no truly moral code by which humans lived. Or that Greek pagan philosophers like Socrates and Plato, who professed only tepid and requisite enthusiasm for their religious Gods, and who were concerned almost exclusively with the problem of the Good Life, could not have possibly set down a system for moral and ethical standards, and laid the basis for secular philosophy, for they were not saved by the Lord Jesus?
J'accuse, Mr. Jacoby.
"It's extraordinary," remarks Randall. "In an increasingly godless age, there is a rising tide of hatred against those who adhere to biblical values." A "tyrannical minority" of intolerant secularists is openly contemptuous of traditional moral norms. "The teachings and guidance of old-fashioned Christianity offend them, so they seek to remove all traces of it from public life."
You don't have to be especially pious to find this atheist zealotry alarming. Nor do you have to live in Europe. Though religion remains important in American life, antireligious passion is surging here, too.
Jacoby then proceeds to stake his claim against atheists and all non-Judeo Christians in general.
What is at stake in all this isn't just angels on Christmas cards. What society loses when it discards Judeo-Christian faith and belief in God is something far more difficult to replace: the value system most likely to promote ethical behavior and sustain a decent society. That isbecause without God, the difference between good and evil becomes purely subjective. What makes murder inherently wrong is not that it feels wrong,but that a transcendent Creator to whom we are answerable commands: "Thou shalt not murder." What makes kindness to others inherently right is not that human reason says so, but that God does: "Love thy neighbor as thyself; I am the Lord."
Obviously this doesn't mean that religious people are always good, or that religion itself cannot lead to cruelty. Nor does it mean that atheists cannot be beautiful, ethical human beings. Belief in God alone does not guarantee goodness. But belief tethered to clear ethical values -- Judeo-Christian monotheism -- is society's best bet for restraining our worst moral impulses and encouraging our best ones.
The atheist alternative is a world in which right and wrong are ultimately matters of opinion, and in which we are finally accountable to no one but ourselves. That is anything but a tiding of comfort and joy.
Well, well, well. Not only does Jacoby deny that people who do not profess a faith cannot live by any sort of recognized, overarching code of moral or ethical behavior, but he insinuates that only through the Judeo-Christian (and I suppose, presumably Muslim) Lord God your Savior can you find any sort of redemptive meaning to this bleak a-moral vacuum. The billions of non-Judeo-Christian-Muslims out there are presumably living their wretched, unwashed lives in sin, without any sort of moral compass, probably killing each other and eating the flesh of their human brethren. After all, without the Lord God, cannibalism becomes acceptable. Yes, Jacob says atheists individually can be beautiful ethical human beings, but his implication is that human society as a whole cannot find moral guidence without the Word.
Are we talking about the same nation, Mr. Jacoby? The nation who professes in poll after poll they would not elect an atheist to the highest office? The nation whose members of Congress, upon having a Federal Court strike down the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance (which was an artificial addition in the 1950s to set ourselves apart from the Godless Communists, anyway), gathered on the steps of the Capitol in defiance and recited the pledge as is. Or the nation who has more churches per capita than any other in the world? A nation where public officials and courthouse witnesses are still sworn in on Holy Bible. The nation whose Evangelical voters turned out in droves to return a clearly incompetent President to White House, because he shared their values and he didn’t want to permit something as human as allowing gays to marry? A nation whose Republican Congress passed a Bill stopping the right-to-die death of one woman as a publicity stunt to appeal to Evangelicals. There is a war on Christmas here? In America? Or could it possibly be that perhaps, in the spirit of multi-culturalism, pluralism and the recognition that America is a diverse place, that American business, in an shamelessly capitalism appeal, put up banners like “Happy Holidays” and market cards without Christian imagery to appeal to the broadest market segment and to avoid making the assumption that everyone is Christian? Could it be that the American government, because of a little known clause known as the Establishment Clause, doesn’t officially step in to recognize or favor Christianity over the plurality of other religious beliefs that citizens may or may not hold?
Never mind the assertion that no moral code can exist without religious authority. Mr. Jacoby, anatomically modern humans appeared probably between 100,000 and 250,000 years ago. By 40,000 years ago, our ancestors had moved into Europe, Asia and Australia and by 10,000 years ago, humans had crossed the Bering Strait and into the Americas. However, Christianity only rudimentally appeared less than 2,000 years ago and was not codified until a few centuries later. Your target in your article is atheists, but that’s not what you write a few sentences earlier. You don’t write that religious faith, any religious faith can offer us a model for ethical living, something akin to what Ghandi said (without the spiteful disdain for atheists). You write “What society loses when it discards Judeo-Christian faith and belief in God is something far more difficult to replace: the value system most likely to promote ethical behavior and sustain a decent society.” Thus, Mr. Jacoby, though my anthropology may be suspect, I believe you are insinuating that for just 100,000 years of our history, there were no truly moral code by which humans lived. Or that Greek pagan philosophers like Socrates and Plato, who professed only tepid and requisite enthusiasm for their religious Gods, and who were concerned almost exclusively with the problem of the Good Life, could not have possibly set down a system for moral and ethical standards, and laid the basis for secular philosophy, for they were not saved by the Lord Jesus?
J'accuse, Mr. Jacoby.
