re: Stunning Admission By Renowned Atheist; Decline of Christianity is Hurting Society

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American Christians have done way more to contribute to the decline of Christian values than atheists could ever try to.

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Though an atheist, I appreciate Jesus Christ as a man whose message was good for humanity. "Love your neighbor as yourself:" the message in this very short statement illustrates that humans are capable of transcending the limited awareness of our primate ancestors. Humans are aware of not only ourselves and our place relative to other humans living in close proximity but also aware that that our behavior impacts the behavior and well being of others.

The message forces us to confront that there is a purpose to our actions and the purpose accorded to our actions requires that we serve humanity as we serve ourselves. This must be true if we are to be both best for ourselves and best others. However, it's also difficult to practice because loving others as we love ourselves is often in direct conflict with our own self interest.

Whether you're a believer or non believer, the message is the same and shows that humans are unique in our ability to understand the context in which we live. Is this supernatural? Is being human devine? As an atheist, I would say no. I can't prove that it's not. It's a matter of faith for believer and non believer.

To your point of American Christians contributing to the decline of Christian values, I would say America has its share of assholes and hypocrites spread equally among both believers and non believers. However, atheists don't claim that christ's teaching were devine. Atheists don't accept that everything in christ's teaching is the authority for all human behavior. We're not the representatives of any religious dogma, hence any effect we may have on christian values is indirect and should be of no consequence to christians. Christians are the only people responsible for the state of christian values.