Christian values are universal values

That Nietzsche foresaw, as Robert Sibley put it, “the crisis of culture that would follow the collapse of the Christian value system” should not be too surprising since, as an atheist, he would have seen as shaky the ground upon which this value system was based.

According to Sibley, we need God as the arbiter to justify truth claims and the God-given absolute moral truths and values taken from the Bible.

To pretend that the Bible provides absolute values to live by is to delude ourselves, since we know that our moral values have already parted with the Bible on issues such as slavery, genocide and homosexuality.

Many present and future issues are not covered in the Bible; they were irrelevant at the time of its writing. It is true that Christianity had provided a value system for 1,500 years — but that was a time of ignorance compared to what is known today.

Should we return to it to save the “Christian value system?”

The reality is that “Christian values” are, in large part, universal values — they existed well before Christianity.

What Christianity brought was a social structure in which members could feel at home.

To save that structure, Christian churches should start a gradual process of adapting to reality today and conditioning members to a spirituality that is not dependent on myths likely to destruct in the face of growing knowledge.

As for things falling apart in 2017, history has shown us more critical disasters that humanity has survived. I am sure that with the help of “the virtues of reason, courage, nobility and self-respect,” we will do it again. Richard Paukstaitis, Gatineau