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  • Writer's pictureLuke Mackie

Are Atheists Actually Christian?

To be an Atheist is to deny the belief of a divine being. I personally do not believe a divine being presides over us. I don’t see the need for divine intervention to explain the formation of the universe, the origins of life, the diversity of life, the development of humanity, or to provide me with a moral code. I do not personally have any issue with others seeing that there is a need for divine intervention either, I admit that we do not know everything in these areas and for some people a divine spark is exactly what is needed to bridge those gaps. Jordan Peterson doesn’t know what an atheist is. Either this is true, or he intentionally misrepresents what an atheist is to provide a stronger argument for his flawed opinion that our moral values are predicated on Judaeo -Christian values.




Let me attempt to explain Jordan Peterson’s argument before continuing, because I really do wish to target his argument directly rather than misrepresent his argument to make my point (see what I did there?). Peterson’s argument is that ‘the west’ has such entrenched Judaeo-Christian values that any individual raised within a society in ‘the west’ will automatically be taught these values. His argument continues that because of this there are no true atheists, but only people who think they’re atheist. He believes that the Judaeo-Christian traditions are superior to those of other cultures, and that they stand out. His reasoning goes further however, where he describes what a ‘true’ atheist will be like. Somebody who will murder another person for the greater good of their community. Somebody who thinks pragmatically about life, and will make the most ‘rational’ decision regardless of if that greater good would cause harm to somebody else. Somebody who will act like any countless scary A.I. villains in modern horror movies, HAL, Terminator, VIKI, Ultron, “I need to kill some of you to protect you from yourselves”. There is a lot to dissect here, and I will need to do it in stages.

Let’s start by looking at the Judaeo -Christian values that he is commenting on. In a discussion with Ben Shapiro on the Rubin Report, Peterson and Shapiro use the Ten Commandments as the primary source of Judaeo -Christian values. Let’s have a look at them:


1. I am the Lord thy God! Thou shalt have no other Gods but me!

2. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain!

3. Thou shalt keep the Sabbath Day holy!

4. Thou shalt honour father and mother!

5. Thou shalt not kill!

6. Thou shalt not commit adultery!

7. Thou shalt not steal!

8. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour!

9. Do not let thyself lust after thy neighbour’s wife!

10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, nor his farm, nor his cattle, nor anything that is his!


The first three commandments are specific to worshipping the Abrahamic God and so we don’t need to discuss them as being something that affects Atheists because they, by definition, do not. So that leaves the final seven. What we need to do with these is assess whether these are exclusive to ‘The West’ and specifically the Jewish and Christian religions. I have picked Buddhism as an Eastern religion to contrast against these principles. Buddhism has Five Precepts to live by, which whilst not being thought of as divinely provided, demonstrate a similar function to the Ten Commandments. They are:


1. Refrain from taking life. Not killing any living being.

2. Refrain from taking what is not given. Not stealing from anyone.

3. Refrain from the misuse of the senses. Not having too much sensual pleasure.

4. Refrain from wrong speech. Not lying or gossiping about other people.

5. Refrain from intoxicants that cloud the mind.


Disregarding the first three commandments the Five Precepts are very similar in denouncing killing, stealing, lying and sexual misconduct. The main difference is Buddhism denounces becoming intoxicated and The Ten Commandments denounce coveting property. Already we can see that ‘Judaeo -Christian’ values are not exclusive to ‘The West’ and occurred independently at a different time, for a different religion, by different people. Why might this have happened? Well an Atheist view on morality has an explanation for this – that in order to live successfully in a group humanity needed to evolve social skills and empathy, and these are all key aspects of that. By not abiding by these types of rules you are going to be shunned by a group that you need for protection. That is the reason these items are very common in laws and rules of varying communities and societies. If the counterargument to this is that Christianity is more accepting of all people rather than just other Christians – this can be easily disproved. The Bible itself includes Holy Wars based on in-group-out-group biases and otherness. Gay people have long been ostracised and oppressed due to scripture, slavery has been defended because it is accepted in the Bible, even not that long ago women were executed as ‘witches’ because of Judaeo-Christian ideology (and if this is not a clear example of people ‘killing to make their society a better place’ then I do not know what is. Peterson’s characterisation of Atheists as killers is a profound reflection of historical religiosity).


To be honest, all of this is a pretty pointless exercise, because so far we have ignored the two biggest points that contradict Jordan Peterson’s argument entirely. Firstly, he completely fails to discuss the purpose of the Enlightenment and the change that this truly brought about for Western culture. The Enlightenment was in direct opposition to religious dogmatism that had been oppressing people for centuries, and aimed to reduce the power of the Church on state matters. This allowed for an increased freedom of religion, and an explosion in scientific discoveries, which ultimately led to the Psychological practice Peterson has trained in. The Enlightenment is truly what modern Western culture is predicated on, and Peterson is a huge advocate for freedom of speech, and that freedom comes from Enlightenment values, not the Judaeo-Christian laws that punished blasphemy and heresy. However, even this is completely overshadowed by the one glaringly obvious issue with Peterson’s argument. That Atheism is simply not believing that a divine being exists. If I get my morals from Judaeo-Christian values, so what? Why does that mean I’m not truly Atheist? It doesn’t. It is simply a way for individuals who value this set of beliefs to attempt to perpetuate the importance of them whilst diminishing the experiences of those who do not share them.


If Jordan Peterson spent some time trying to understand the atheist mind-set from the perspective of an atheist (which is weird he hasn’t as he is a Psychologist and should be intrigued by the way people think), then he would find that we have the same morals as others because human morality is largely intrinsic. A written down code of conduct is not necessary. People tend to be kind and loving to people they value. Atheists are the same; we just don’t believe a God exists.

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