119 / Religion & ethics for dummies
Once again a
religious type pushes his Christian agenda on SMH readers:
Any time Nathaniel Pelle (Letters, April 19)
wants to engage in some objective study of Christian ethics, he is welcome to
give me a call. But between now and then, the only thing staggeringly illogical
is his statement “ethics, in fact, predates God”. If God is the creator of
everything, as all religions believe, it is not only illogical but staggeringly
wrong.
Reverend Nigel Fortescue
Campbelltown Anglican Church
No, Reverend, it's you who's illogical and staggeringly wrong. Your notion that God is the creator
of everything and therefore predates ethics, is flawed. The point is that this
belief in God is your Christian belief. For that reason you and the church may
well adhere to Christian ethics, which date back some 2k years, at most 3.5k
years – but secular ethics stem from older backgrounds and sources.
The belief
in God and his ethics is contingent on a variety of religious traditions, all
of which are biased and irrational. The fact is that God is not the creator of
everything - if that myth was a fact, there would be proof and we would live in
a fundamentally different world. You are entitled to your belief, which should
be preached in church. And your religious ethics should be taught in Sunday classes
or denominational schools. But secular public schools are for the teaching of rational, secular
ethics.