Sanctimonious bloody hypocrites

I keep reading condemnations of secular moral relativism in the media. Child abuse: It's because of secular moral relativism. Teenage delinquency: All down to secular moral relativism. Fast-breeding welfare sluts: Permitted by secular moral relativism. Drug addiction: Secular moral relativism.

I'll tell you about moral relativism.

I am an evangelical atheist; I know that there is no god and I try to spread that message of reason and optimism to others. That makes me about as secular as you can get. At the same time, I am pretty much a moral absolutist. For example, it is always wrong to steal the property of another person. It is always wrong to initiate violence against someone who has done nothing to harm you. It is always wrong to compel people, by force or the threat of force, to adhere to your beliefs. These are some of my morals. The source of them is not the ramblings of a tribe of bronze-age goat herders or a seventh-century bandit with a very young wife; they are moral standards which I worked out myself based on how I would like others to treat me. They are in no way relative; it doesn't become OK to steal from someone because he is richer than me. It's not justifiable to assault someone because his beliefs don't agree with mine (although it is OK if I catch him stealing my car.) I can't justify executing someone for deciding that from now on he wants to drink alcohol, use condoms, shave his beard or work on Saturdays. There is no moral relativism there.

On the other hand, it's moral relativism to say that Afghan women shouldn't be forced to wear the burqa but American ones can't have an abortion. It's moral relativism to say that schoolchildren mustn't be corrupted by learning that AIDS can kill you, but should be wilfully misled into believing that the Earth is 6,000 years old. It's moral relativism to say that the Madrassahs in Pakistan are indoctrinating children with religious extremism but the creationist Emmanuel School in Gateshead is performing well and adding valuable diversity to the education system.

Every one of these issues is a clear case of moral relativism, not to say bare-faced hypocrisy, and not one of them has a secular motivation. Every one, in fact, has a religious motivation.

Forcing women to hide themselves inside a sack with eyeholes and denying them control of their own bodies are both examples of religious edicts, but one is OK because it's practiced by christians and the other is wrong because it's practiced by the Taliban; both are, in fact, equally disgusting. Giving sex education in schools is wrong because children might then one day have sex, but it's OK to fill their heads with myths that mean they will never be able to understand the world we live in unless subsequently deprogrammed; in reality of course, sex education is valuable while creationist lies do nothing but harm. Fundamentalist schools of all sorts teach children scripture rather than reality, but one is OK because it's supported by Tony Blair and the other isn't because it's supported by Jalaluddin Haqqani; in a just world, both would be emptied of their children before the buildings and faculty were obliterated with cluster bombs and napalm.

Ironically, only the madrassahs are being bombed. This is because Blair and Bush, a pair of god-addled morons who both promote religious education in their own countries, can't see that the policies of Reg Vardey's Emmanuel School and the former school board of Dover, Pennsylvania, differ only in detail from the martyr mills of Quetta.


"22 Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him.

23 And the man, the master of the house, went out unto them, and said unto them, Nay, my brethren, nay, I pray you, do not so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into mine house, do not this folly.

24 Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing."

Judges 19: 22-24


"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."

Steven Weinberg