Germaine Greer - The Decline of Christian Ethics

Germaine Greer responds to a question regarding the decline of Christian ethics on Any Questions - Radio 4 - 31st May 2008

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• atheism
• religion
• god
• ethics
• germaine
• greer
• radio
• four
• any
• questions

[babcockandbobbins]

How about commenting on what she's actually saying rather than making weak ad hominem attacks

[UnoriginallyInclined]

I disagree with the implication that Christianity was somehow responsible for slavery. Slavery is an economic institution that only works where there's a large labour shortage- the fact that slaveowners were Christian is incidental. There weren't many slaves in Europe, after all. And when they did start using slaves, they used the slave networks established earlier by Arab traders in Africa. It's not as though people were buying slaves because they thought their God wanted them to.

[zoomflesh]

not a massive fan but,she has a point here empirisiim and rationalisim is what should push us forward

[Fred50099]

Thanks!8 

[AegeanKing]

@UnoriginallyInclined This is a late comment but I feel compelled to make it. Most people do not know that it was a Catholic Monk who convinced the Spanish King to stop making people slaves in South America.

[KumarZimmerman08]

Muslims want to stone women to death, hang gays, behead unbelievers thats good. christians don't believe in gay marriage. bad. this is what cultural marxism has done to our society.

[00sparkleandshiiine]

BOOM!

finally she said what we're all thinking. By we I mean the people..not hiding behind their books or men in fancy hats

[listen2meokidoki]

Didn't Germaine die recently after being stung by a Singray during an argument with one? The way she taunts dumb animals with her words it wouldn't surpise me if it's true. In which case it could be argued, she had it coming.

[isnukwin]

Reading some of the comments and listening to Greer, despite being a Catholic and a Christian, I agree with her. Religions would say God is the Good and secular people would say Good is the Good. To me, both of them are right because of their understanding of what is good. With or without religion, good still exits. Thus, the decline of Christian ethics is a MYTH. Ethics is a subjective matter and should not be constrained to an exact algorithm. Human nature has been what it has always been.

[SarkySaki]

@UnoriginallyInclined Though slave owners often justified their actions by pointing to the "the good book", which is rife with justification for slavery.

[princessdianaislove]

As a Former Christian I can say that it was the church that made me turn away from Christianity not Islam. It was the church of England’s stand against gay marriage and adoption that made me turn away in disgust. Rather than blame another religion for stealing their “customers” maybe they should look inward and see how out of touch they are with the modern world, then maybe they will understand why so many people have turned away.

[Konformation07]

I can't listen to her. She is just overall an idiot. Hell, Richard Dawkins is better than this clown. Now don't assume I'm some religious nut because I'm nowhere near that however with that said she is one of those bullies to the point her views in my eyes lose so much credibility she's not worth it. She's an imbecile who can take her feminist self and jump off a bridge. Honestly, I would push her off I just couldn't wait.