Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists

by Dan Barker

Once I shed the religio-psychological frame of mind, I learned that the Christian “struggle” with morality is overblown. I learned that relativism is all we’ve got. Human values are not absolutes—they are relative to human needs. The humanistic answer to morality, if the question is properly understood, is that the basis for values lies in nature. Since we are a part of nature, and since there is nothing “beyond” nature, it is necessary to assign value to actions in the context of nature itself. Most of us do this daily since we are born and raised in nature; as a matter of fact, we do it without much thought or distress. One simplified example of how nature provides the basis for value: the human body requires water for survival. Since most humans want to survive, withholding water can be considered immoral. There is nothing cosmically “good” about water or cosmically “evil” about the lack of it. It is all relative to natural human needs.