Let's assume that 80% of Americans are Christian. I could use other countries with a high proportion if Christians, but a large number of the people I come into contact with via this web site are US citizens, so we'll go with that particular country. 80% is a very high number. And remember that in the US most of the remaining 20% follow other religions. Maybe only 3% are professed atheists. Whatever the exact figures are, it's clear that the vast majority of people in the United States are Christians.

Christians get their morality from the Bible. They say they do, anyway, and some are very vocal about insisting that the US was founded on Judeo-Christian values and, importantly, that the 10 Commandments are paramount. Christians were further taught by Jesus to 'do unto others as you would have others do unto you' (see footnote) and to 'turn the other cheek' when someone wrongs you.

So, preamble over, and on to my point: why do we need criminal laws if religion is enough? If Christians are so keen to tell us that the Bible is the source of all things good, do we really need to have man-made laws defining murder, rape, theft, and so on? Surely Christians, if they are keen to show how God-fearing they really are, won't break any laws at all will they? So why have those laws?

Maybe the criminal laws are just for atheists, to keep those people in check who don't believe that the Bible is only book of law-and-order guidance we need. But those people are 3% of the US population. Why have a hugely complex system of judicial statutes and penalties for so small a minority? After all, if the US is a Judeo-Christian country, the Biblical rules would apply to them too, so the Christians could just uphold those laws and bring the penalties to bear on any criminal non-believers.

Obviously this is not the situation in any country of the world. All nations have thousands of criminal laws, covering a multitude of (ahem) sins, and many of those crimes are not even mentioned in the Bible. I mean, which of the 10 Commandments tells us 'thou shalt not have sex with children'? I couldn't find it, and nor could the Muslim prophet Muhammad apparently when he married a 6 year old and had sex with her at age 9. And the many, many Christians in prison for assualt, drug offences, fraud... did they forget to read their Bibles that day?

It seems to me that Christians actually have very little faith in their Bible as a source for morality, and approaching zero for its ability to define rules and regulations for living a good, law-abiding life. If the US legal system is based on Judeo-Christian values, and has at its heart the 10 Commandments, why are so few of the 10 actually enacted into law?

Commandment	In Law?
Thou shalt have no other gods before me	NO
Thou shalt not make for thyself an idol	NO
Thou shalt not make wrongful use of the name of thy God	NO
Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy	NO
Honour thy Father and Mother	NO
Thou shalt not murder	YES
Thou shalt not commit adultery	NO
Thou shalt not steal	YES
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor	YES
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house/wife	NO

For 'bearing false witness' I've assumed this relates to perjury. Lying in itself is not usually a crime, but in some cases it may be, eg lying to a police officer. But that still leaves only 3 out of the 10 which modern-day laws specifically prohibit. Hardly a solid foundation for a legal system is it?

This is because it is people make the laws, people who live from day to day and who need those laws to protect them and their ever-changing way of life. Ancient peoples knew nothing about computers, so how could they possibly be expected to set out laws relating to spam, hacking and computer fraud and add them into their holy book?

The word 'relativity' is important here. As time passes on, society changes, and we need laws which are relative and appropriate to the current situation. Slavery was rife in the ancient world, and is mentioned many times in the Bible, but is never condemned there. Slavery today is gone, totally illegal in every part of the world. Not because the Bible said so, but because people said so, people who came together and decided that such things were no longer going to be tolerated.

Other things which are totally prohibited in the Bible, and/or which many Christian denominations condemn, are now perfectly legal. Homosexuality is legal. Abortion is legal. Contraception is legal. And yet all these things are openly despised by one or more branches of the Christian Church. If Judeo-Christian teachings, which after all quote the very 'word of God', are to be given priority, why allow so many things which Christianity does not itself agree with?

The Bible is no more a source for morality and law than are Aesop's Fables. In fact, you might argue that Aesop's Fables could teach us more about morality than the Bible ever could. But ultimately what laws we have are all man-made, and tailored to meet an ever-changing world. Why do we need criminal laws? Because being Christian, or Muslim, or Jewish, or indeed atheist, does not give us any legal boundaries or framework within which to live our lives. Faithful or faithless, we need man-made laws because we are all simply men and women who want to live together in safety, while God's supposed influence on the legal system simply does not exist.

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Footnote:
'Do unto others as you would have others do unto you' is the 'golden rule' and is present in practically all the main religions and cultures of the world in one form or another, but I'm being generous and giving it to Christianity just for this blog.