Dear Friends,
It seems to me, if people are created in the image of God, then abusing another is a blasphemous act. It is literally disrespecting God by debasing an image of God. That’s the definition of blasphemy. If one accepts this definition of human beings, Christian morality falls out of it, derived, not ad hoc. Institutions that have existed since the dawn of time in every culture and civilization, were rejected by the Christian ethos. Indeed, every crime against the person is a form of blasphemy. This is because they are all acts that disrespect an image of God. Today, even Christ hating atheists accept the Christian morality as self-evident, and exploit that morality to condemn Christians. It’s true that Christians violate our morality all the time. This is exactly what Christianity teaches us… that we’re sinners.
The philosophy that we are all created as an image of God is Judaeo-Christian. It originates from the Old Testament. The concept, however, wasn’t universally applied until the Gentile Pentecost. This is when all people were accepted into the church. At that moment, every human being on Earth, who ever was or ever will be, slave and free, poor and rich…became philosophically the actual image of God. An image of God in any religion is sacrosanct. It is not to be abused, debased, or polluted. So in the case of a human being, the icon of God, to debase, abuse, or pollute a person, is to do it to God. This makes such actions blasphemy. That philosophy taken to its logical end concludes that Natural Rights belong to everyone. The logic didn’t happen overnight though.
People resisted the Christian ethos for generations and many still do. This is because Christianity asks a lot of its adherents, but delivers much as well. Many want the goods but don’t want to pay the price. That doesn’t make them evil, it makes them human. We are like electricity, we seek the easiest path to ground. If that easy path is exploiting the Christian ethos but not adhering to it, that is the path ever more will take. We are a lazy lot given the opportunity. This mindset, that of taking advantage however, destroys the goods it seeks to gain. This is because the goods of Christianity cannot be long enjoyed without Christianity. I can almost hear the cries from atheists, what goods does Christianity bestow? That, as they take advantage of the peace, prosperity, and equality that Christian ethics demand.
The goods that Christianity provides are usually tallied as supernatural. You may suffer in this world but prosper in the next is how its sold. This is all fine and dandy but it short sells the product. Christian ethics outlawed slavery. No other religion has done that. The lack of slaves enabled the market system to arise. There would be no arms raised searching for work, if there were slaves who did it. Stealing, even ideas from an image of God is blasphemy, that’s the foundation of patent law. Without such protections there is no incentive to invent. That each man keeps the fruits of his own labor also falls out of man as the image of God. Every moral good that we take for granted is of Christian origin. Although, it’s true that some ideas were imported and incorporated.
The ideas of democracy from ancient Athens are compatible with people as an image of God. That’s why it’s taken as self-evident today. Not because of the power of ancient Athens but the power of the Christian ethos. Atheists use Christian morality to condemn Christians and Christianity. They make the spurious argument that Christians had slaves, therefore Christianity is evil by its own standard. Many claim the science that Christian ethics encouraged (to see into the mind of God) doesn’t comport with Christian theology, proving Christianity a myth. I think they accuse so as not to have to live up to those standards. Meanwhile, they forget that without Christianity, slavery would come back, science would whither away, inhumanity would become the norm, and they might not be the winners.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
