Video & Multimedia
In reply to the discussion: Maybe the most disturbing video I have seen. [View all]Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)That was my central point. Throughout history you find religious "morality" used to justify all sorts of immoral acts. Slavery is just one of them. It wasn't until the Enlightenment that people began to throw off the yoke of religion as a basis for ethics and that's why change occurred. It doesn't take a genius to figure out a book that advocates slavery, pedophilia, rape, incest, war, murder, and child abuse probably isn't the best moral compass available.
While there certainly were some leaders of the abolitionist movement who based their case on biblical ethics, it's somewhat disengenuous to ignore the proponents of slavery who managed to use biblical ethics to a far greater effect for far longer. It's no different than people who are quick to point out Christian soup kitchens, but effectively ignore how Christianity destroys life, mental health, scientific endeavors, and free thought in general.
For every William Wilberforce you can name, I can counter with the likes of Benjamin Palmer who enjoyed far greater influence and preached that slavery was not only moral per biblical principles but was preferable to the slaves themselves than the alternative. That's what biblical ethics gets you. When your ethics aren't founded in reason, you can use them to justify pretty much any immoral act you can name. When you claim that god is on your side and people believe it, there simply is no higher authority one can appeal to refute anything to believers.