Talk Back 8
Right & Wrong
by James Krieg
This article is essentially a response to Reflection 1. In turn, there is a response to this article at Reflection 2. Further, a discussion has been opened on this essay. To submit your own comments, please use the contact page.
OK. So you've got the guy who does good things because he's afraid of hell. Then the next guy who does good because he hopes to earn brownie points. Then the third guy who does good because of some ontological sense of what is right and wrong. The first two are (inaccurate) caricatures of Christianity (while more accurate regarding other 'religions'). What is the third? Surely not the agnostic?
If I concede ignorance regarding God's existence and nature, I must also concede ignorance regarding morality. If ethics and morality are ambiguous, then the agnostic must really fall into a fourth category - the guy who does whatever he feels like might be good at the time - be it determined by emotion, upbringing, societal pressure, or the steak he ate last night.
A happy and fulfilling life? I don't think so. Just ask the thousands of people who have already tried it.
How about a fifth guy - the one whose mind, heart and conscience has been transformed and renewed by and External influence so that it is consumed and propelled to do good things not out of obligation, fear or duty, but from an overflowing of joy at finally finding his true identity in the One who made him (and her)?
Yeah, OK. I am a Christian. But I'm not trying to convert you. That's God's job.