Is It Moral ?

This is one of the two days of the year that christians, many of whom ignore their religion's teachings most of the time, turn their thoughts to their "savior" and his teachings (the other day being christmas). I think this makes today a good time to look at some things that many christians, especially fundamentalists, say are immoral. And the Pew Research Center has done a poll that takes an interesting look at what is considered immoral or moral today.

They looked at eight things that many today consider immoral (divorce, abortion, drinking alcohol, homosexuality, sex between unmarried people, affairs by married people with others, use of contraceptives, and gambling), and polled people in 40 nations on whether they thought these things were moral, immoral, or not a moral issue. The nations were pretty representative of the world -- containing countries in all areas, with different religions, and having both developed and third world countries. You can go here for a list of these countries.

I'm not sure where christians get the idea that some of these things are immoral. Things like abortion, drinking alcohol, or using contraceptives are not specifically banned in their religious book. In fact, Jesus is supposed to have miraculously turned water into wine so the members of a wedding could continue their celebration, so he obviously didn't think drinking alcohol was sinful. Some will say the Biblical exhortation not to kill covers abortion, but the Bible does not really say that (and makes many exceptions to the commandment not to kill, including exceptions to the killing of children).

What I found most interesting about the Pew Research Center report was the difference (sometimes small and sometimes large) between what people in the United States thought was moral, and what people in the world thought (as represented by an average of the 40 countries surveyed). Those results are shown in the charts below.