Sacrificing our Moral Compasses

[John V]

Exactly. That's why I find religious morals dangerous.

From the atheist side of the question I see people doing one of two very dangerous things:

1) Coming to their own moral conclusion. Supporting that conclusion by either personal revelation or by cherry picking scriptures. Then refusing to argue about whether it's moral or not because it's the word of god. The person using this method may honestly think they found their morality in scripture or through revelation, but given the way religious morality changes with the times (just a few decades behind secular morality) I think it is really just personal morality disguised as god's morality.

Note the bolded part - if this is the case, then religion isn't having a real impact.

2) Following scripture literally, which as most of it was written in a time much more barbaric then present western civilization (and a lot like parts of the current middle east) and applying it to modern western civilization can lead to horrors, i.e. rape a virgin gain a wife, is barbaric.

Where in the west can you rape a virgin to gain a wife?

Method one, often results in the same moral standards as secular society. But when it doesn't, the theist will not budge because god is on his side--or at least so he thinks. Homosexuality, abortion, birth control, and a number of other issues fit this catagory.

The fact that many Christians do accept these things shows that theists do budge on such matters.

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I've talked to plenty of Christians who will say it doesn't matter how much good I do in the world, even saving billions of people, but if I don't find Jesus, down to hell with me I go.

That's the nature of law. You could find a cure for cancer and save millions of lives, but if you commit a murder, you'll still go to jail.