DangerousTalk

Due to the recent string of scandals plaguing the Catholic Church, Vatican Biblical scholars have been studying the Bible carefully to find out God’s opinion on rape. They can’t seem to find any passage which states or infers that child rape is a sin. Earlier this morning, the Pope met in a closed door session with the Creator of the Universe and God informed him that child rape is not immoral.

This is of course and April Fools story, but as a point of fact there is no passage in the Bible in which rape (child or otherwise) is considered a sin or immoral. A large number of Christians believe that morality is grounded in the arbitrary whims of God. With that in mind, if God were to state that rape (even child rape) was now moral it would simply be the case.

This is of course ridiculous. Everyone knows that rape (especially child rape) is immoral and wrong. No Biblical discovery or revelation from God would change that fact. Clearly morality is not grounded in God’s arbitrary whims, but grounded instead in the empathy and compassion of sentient creatures toward sentient creatures.

We all have an intuitive sense through our empathy and compassion that forcing sex on someone else especially a child is wrong. That intuition is a product of the brain which allows us to put ourselves in the place of the victim and to metaphorically, “feel their pain.” Interestingly enough, a recent study which appeared in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that magnetic forces aimed in a certain spot of the brain can actually affect someone’s moral decisions. I guess we really do have a moral compass.

Filed under: atheism, morality, People of Reason, Religion, science, sin