A number of recent letters have asserted that atheism inevitably leads to moral relativism. The argument seems to be:ÿ”There are only two possible moral theories, a God-centered one and a relativistic one.ÿ So an atheist must be a relativist.”

This is a poor argument.ÿ

Further, it unnecessarily turns up the heat on a debate that is already plenty hot.ÿThe argument suffers from at least three defects:

1. It ignores more than 2,000 years of thinking about the nature of morality. Relativism is not the only alternative to a God-centered view of morality. In fact, there are plenty of non-theistic views that take morality to be objective.ÿ Many of these alternatives were developed and refined by Christians!

2. The argument offers absolutely no evidence for thinking that atheists are less moral than theists.ÿ Are atheists more likely to be moral relativists?ÿAre they more likely to be mean to their mothers, their neighbors or their dogs?ÿI don’t know. And I don’t think anybody else does, either.

It is often argued that there has been a serious moral breakdown in our society, and that this is the result of widespread moral relativism.ÿ This is terribly simplistic. Why do people do bad things?ÿSurely the answer is as complicated as the human heart.

But even if it’s true that moral degeneracy and moral relativism are on the rise, there’s no reason to believe that relativism is the cause of the degeneracy.ÿ

Showing two things are on the increase does not show that one causes the other. When people do bad things, they may try to justify their behavior by rejecting morality.ÿ

But is the rejection of morality the cause of the bad behavior or is it simply an attempt to justify that behavior to themselves and to others?ÿWe don’t know.

To see this point clearly, consider that according to U.S. News and World Report, the neighborhoods in the U.S. that are the most violent also have the highest rates of church attendance.ÿ

On the basis of this fact, should we say that religion causes violence?ÿ No.ÿ That would be stupid.ÿ Correlation is not causation.

3. The argument ignores evidence against the idea atheists could be a significant cause of our problems.ÿ

For one thing, there aren’t enough atheists with any power.ÿ A recent survey in U.S. News showed that about 5 percent of people living in the U.S. consider themselves atheists.ÿHow many atheists can you name who have ever served as president, senator or representative?ÿÿ

Perhaps the idea is that atheists do their evil work in subtler ways?ÿ But consider that percentage-wise, the U.S. has fewer atheists and more theists than most other industrialized countries.ÿ

So if atheists really were the cause of moral breakdown, the U.S. should be morally better off than these other countries. But per capita we still lead the industrialized world in murder and in murdering women, and we’re putting a higher percentage of our population in jail than any other country in the world.

Given this evidence, it seems likely that our moral failings have little to do with atheism.ÿ

Perhaps it would be wise for all of us to cool down, stop point fingers and honestly look for the true causes of our problems.

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Michael Bishop

Associate professor

Philosophy