One of the things I always try to impress upon peope, especially in prison, is that religion and morality are not the same thing. And yet, according to all polls, atheists are still seen as being without morals, as nihilistic even. It’s just nonsense. A cursory look at the world before the Christians came along shows great strides already made in moral philosophy (in fact the Christians later borrowed moral philosophy from Greek and Roman philosophy like Stoicism). Similar laws existed before the Hebrews. The Golden Rule popped up independently before Jesus. And the Christians, when they came to power, acted just as selfish and horrible as everyone else did. Worse, in fact. I don’t think any religious or social movement in history ever slaughtered and enslaved and conquered the tens of millions that Christian Europeans did. It was only much later, when secular, humanist values came to dominate the West, that Christians were changed along with it.

Dan Turner
DOC# 767569