Rodney Stark Quote
Only One True God can provide an adequate religious basis for the moral order. Divine essences such as the Tao do not command us to love one another. The first mover does not forbid us to covet another’s spouse. Paul Tillich’s conception of God as the ground of our being is not a being and therefore is incapable of having, let alone expressing, moral concerns. As for the little beings who populate pagan pantheons, they seem to concern themselves only with their own welfare and to ignore what people do to and for one another. Only monotheism serves as a basis for morality, for compelling and significant thou shalts and thou shalt nots. This certainly is not to suggest that pagan societies lack morality, but to acknowledge that their moral orders are not justified on religious grounds.
Only One True God can provide an adequate religious basis for the moral order. Divine essences such as the Tao do not command us to love one another. The first mover does not forbid us to covet another’s spouse. Paul Tillich’s conception of God as the ground of our being is not a being and therefore is incapable of having, let alone expressing, moral concerns. As for the little beings who populate pagan pantheons, they seem to concern themselves only with their own welfare and to ignore what people do to and for one another. Only monotheism serves as a basis for morality, for compelling and significant thou shalts and thou shalt nots. This certainly is not to suggest that pagan societies lack morality, but to acknowledge that their moral orders are not justified on religious grounds.
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About Rodney Stark
Stark had written over 30 books, including The Rise of Christianity (1996), and more than 140 scholarly articles on subjects as diverse as prejudice, crime, suicide, and city life in ancient Rome. He twice won the Distinguished Book Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, for The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival, and Cult Formation (1985, with William Sims Bainbridge), and for The Churching of America 1776–1990 (1992, with Roger Finke).