Are Atheists "Holier Than Thou?"

Every now and then I come across an atheist who claims that atheists who choose good behavior are more moral than religious people (particularly Christians) who choose the same behavior. The reason that they give for this is that Christians need the fear of hell to scare them away from bad behavior whereas atheists do good for the sake of the behavior's being good. This is simultaneously a character attack as well as a philosophical attack. Both deserve to be addressed; however, today I will focus on the philosophical.

Book Review: Another Gospel?- Introduction

Historic Christianity faces challenges from those of different worldviews and faiths all the time. These challenges are usually obvious and are not as easily accepted without further investigation by those in the Church. If they are accepted, those in the Church know that they are leaving Christianity for a completely different worldview. However, in recent decades a new challenge has come against the historic Christian worldview, and that challenge comes from within the Church and purports to be "Christian." Recently it has taken on the title of "Progressive Christianity." It uses Christ's name and presents challenges in the names of love and justice. This deception initially shook CCM artist and worship leader Alisa Childers, but her investigation revealed the hollowness of this movement.

In her book "Another Gospel? A Life Long Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity" she recounts her journey of deconstruction, investigation, and reconstruction.

My review will consist of the usual chapter-by-chapter summary and conclude with my recommendation. I will attempt to capture the heart and mind behind this book without giving away the best parts.

Be sure to check out Alisa's blog, podcast, YouTube channel for a continual stream of content related to Progressive Christianity and the many different ways it is sneaking into our churches.

A couple months ago, I was asked to give some quick pointers on responding to a person's issues with the existence of eternal punishment in hell. The answers I provided scratch the surface, but seem good enough to post here because they might get someone thinking about the denial of eternal punishment from both a Scriptural position (for the Christian) and a philosophical position (for the non-Christian). The person who was challenging is not a Christian but is willing to accept that Scripture is the source for orthodox Christian belief. The interesting implication that I point out is what inspired the odd title of this post.

Here is the email that I sent (I've edited it a bit for clarification):

I've always been annoyed by the "fire and brimstone" preachers and Christians. Not because I necessarily disagreed with them, but because of what they implied. Too many of them were almost trying to scare people into The Kingdom. "If you don't come to Christ, these horrible things are going to happen to you." Not only is this not appealing to most people, it comes from a very flawed way of understanding the choice that we make when we accept Christ.

When we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are actively choosing Him. We are not coming to Him as a last ditch effort to avoid something unpleasant (Hell). Since we are relational creatures, we don't just pick the lesser of the discomforts, we make particular choices because we believe that they are set apart from the other options in a very distinct way.