What objective moral values?

If there are objective (absolute) moral values given to us in the Bible then why is there no single important social/moral issue on which sincere Bible believers agree? People who find "moral absolutes" in the revelation of a deity have never agreed on what those absolutes are. Take any crucial moral issue of the day and you will find devout, God-fearing, Bible-believing Christians coming down on opposite sides:

• capital punishment
• abortion
• divorce
• physician-assisted suicide
• gay rights
• women's rights
• corporal punishment
• war (hawks vs. doves)
• birth control
• fetal tissue research
• cloning
• separation of church and state
• slavery (especially in the 19th century)
• and so on . . .

Former minister Dan Barker observed:

The apostle Paul alleged that the biblical deity is "not the author of confusion," yet never has a single book caused more confusion or divisiveness than the Bible. If the bible gives us absolute moral guidance, then where is it? It seems no one really knows what these "objective values" are. Why don't sincere believers agree on these important questions? It's clear that the Bible is an inadequate behavioral guide, and that the tyrannical god of Scriptural mythology leads us to a lack of values.

Why your morals are better than the Bible’s

1. The Bible condones slavery.
   Although supposedly a book of morals it never says anything against slavery. Yahweh instituted slavery at Exod. 21:2. Leviticus 25:44 explains where to get slaves and that you can hand them down to your children. Exod. 21:21 allows a slave owner to beat a slave to death, as long as it is an unintentional result of the severe beating. Ephesians 6:5 has: "Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ." Colossians 3:22 says: "Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it,… with sincerity of heart and reverence for the LORD."


2. The Bible supports polygamy.
   Yahweh gave David many wives and would have given him more: "Thus says the LORD,... I gave you your master's house, and your master’s wives… if this were too little, I would add to you as much more." (2 Sam 12:7-8). His son Solomon is the only person in the Bible specifically described as being loved by Yahweh. He had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3).


3. The Bible has condoned and even required human sacrifice.

   …and they hanged them in the hill before the LORD: and they fell all seven together, and were put to death in the days of harvest… And after that God was intreated for the land. (2 Sam. 21:1-14; see also Exod. 22:29-30; Lev. 27:28-29; Ezek. 20:24-26)

4. The Bible has supported mass genocide.

   So Joshua… utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the LORD God of Israel commanded. (Joshua 10:40)

   …do not leave alive anything that breathes. (Deut. 20:16)

   …Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys. (1 Samuel 15:3)

5. The Bible teaches that women have an inferior status to men.

   Wives be in subjection to your own husbands, as unto the LORD,… as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their husbands in everything. (Ephesians 5:22-24)

6. The Bible says a woman must marry her rapist.

   …she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her… (Deuteronomy 22:28-29)