Christian "Morality"

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Christians do the right thing for fear of hell.

I disagree. Some Christians will behave a certain way out of the fear of hell, certainly. But whether such actions constitute the 'right thing' is problematical.

I do the right thing because I don't fear hell.

I sincerely hope you don't mean that. I can't imagine you saying, 'I'm going to do such and such because I'm unafraid of hell.'

How can christians be "moral" if their only reason to do something is out of fear? When did fear justify good behavior? When did fear justify righteousness?

But we haven't established that this is the case. Christians, like anyone else, may be motivated to do things by for a number of reasons. I suspect that most mainstream Christians keep a Bible in their homes, go to regular services and say daily prayers out of fear of hell, but I doubt very much that the first thought of a Christian going to help an injured child is, 'I'd better do this, or I'll go to hell.'

If you look back through some of the worst atrocities committed by religionist in general (not just Christians), the motivation for [/i]bad[i] behavior seems to have been fear ('I'd better burn these Jews so God will love me.' 'I'd better fly planes into these buildings so God will love me.')

People (you, me, Christians, anyone) are moral not because of their religious beliefs, but in spite of them.

Boru