Poisonous Religion

An atheist on the Bob Dutko show today got on my nerves a little bit. He wrote a book called "God Is Not Great" with some subtitle indicating that religion is poisoning society.

The point he was trying to make was that "true" altruism, where we help our fellow man just because it is our responsibility to our fellow man, is tainted when we start doing good things because of the promise of reward or fear of punishment. Bob was trying to debate him on another point, but he was being evasive and kept bringing this one up.

I'm just going to set aside the moral argument for the existence of God. That sense of responsibility "altruistic atheists" might have does come from somewhere you know.

This dude doesn't appear to know Christianity at all if I understood his claim correctly. It doesn't even have the right basis! Sure, with some religions people may try to "get in good" with God or a false god by doing good works, but that's certainly not where our good works come from.

How about out because we love God and are grateful to him for what he has done for us?

How about to verify that we have faith in Christ?

How about to show love to our neighbor, who we should love as ourselves?

How about because we are created in Christ for good works that have already been prepared for us?

I must say again that our good works are not the means to our salvation but rather a product of it! So the argument that we have damaged "true" good works because of a motivation for reward is invalid. Any reward that comes from good works done here on this earth is just a bonus.

So, brothers and sisters in Christ, let your light shine so that others' may see them and praise our father in heaven!