"My atheist is better than your Christian"

One frequent argument Christians are faced with from the non-believing crowd goes something like this:

1. Christianity claims to produce people with superior morals.
2. There are atheists that appear to possess superior morals than some Christians.
3. Therefore, there is nothing special about the morality advanced by Christianity.

After setting forth this argument, the atheist may have a "so deal with that" inflection in their voice and at first glance it may cause the Christian to stammer. As with many of the anti-Christian arguments, they appear to be a mile wide but are only an inch deep.

There is no doubt that there are many who claim to be Christians who are living wicked lives. This is blatant hypocrisy and is not tolerated by God. Consider the words of Jesus in responding to the Pharisees' hypocrisy in the 1st century:

“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” (Matt 7.21–23 KJV)

Many atheists use these very hypocritical "Christians" as their standard of comparison with their atheist contemporaries. True Christians ought to be the standard of comparison if one is to be fair. Regardless of that, consider the following difficulties with such comparisons:

1. It should be known what the Christian was before conversion, so that the life afterward might be compared with what it was before. This would give a much more accurate picture of the transforming power of the word of God.

2. It should be considered what they probably would have been without this religion.

3. The non-Christian who is being used as a comparison should be examined to see if they are fair representatives of those who have never made any profession of Christianity.

4. It should be known what have been the effects of Christianity on the non-Christian. It might be that although they had never been church members, the morality which made them so respectable was all obtained from that very religion.

5. It should be borne in mind that other influences than those of the religion under consideration may have controlled those church members, and that the religion is not so much to blame as other forces that controlled them. Just because someone is a Christian does not mean that they are forever protected from the temptation to sin and the influence of the world.

6. Finally, it should be known whether the persons compared are fair representatives. For example, consider the man who set out to prove that his neighbor's farm crop was not as good as his. He went into his neighbor's field and plucked ten ears of corn, of the smallest and rotten that he could find. He then went into this own field, and took the same number of the largest and best filled ears that he could find and made his comparison. Not all Christians are of the same moral stature and maturity level. Christianity could just as easily take one of its most spiritually mature adherents and compare him to the basest of sinners outside of the body of Christ as a "proof" of Christianity.

Even if you disregard all the flaws with the non-Christian's "comparison argument" there is still one fact that remains.

Christianity has not promised to make perfect people. In fact, Christianity highlights the imperfection of man, morally speaking. Man has distanced himself from God by sin. Sin puts us in debt, a debt we cannot pay in and of ourselves. Jesus Christ paid that debt and stands as a mediator between a perfectly holy God and an imperfect man (1 Tim. 2:5). If it was possible for man to live a sinlessly perfect life, then there would have been no need for Jesus Christ to die for the sins of the world.

Will true Christians who are actually following the Bible generally have better morals than the world around them? Of course. There is no book or teaching that has ever existed in the annuls of time that elucidates a more perfect system of morality than the Bible. Read passages such as the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount and ask yourself the question: if everyone in the world followed these laws and precepts, how much different would our world be?

But moral living on this earth is not so much the goal of Christianity as it is the means to the goal of preparation for the life to come. A man can be a "good person" by man's standards, regardless of his religious affiliation, but that will never be good enough to get him into heaven. Heaven awaits only those who submit to the will of God and trust Him enough to obey His word.

“He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; but he that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3.36 ASV)

God's grace (unmerited favor, free gift) is the only means by which a person can be saved.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:” (Eph 2.8 KJV)

So it has been shown that the anti-Christian "moral comparison" argument is riddled with problems and even if the argument is valid--speaks very little to the truthfulness and morality of true Christianity. When making comparisons about worldviews and religion, the standard of authority for that worldview or religion should be the thing examined--not the imperfections of those trying to follow it.