Addressing an argument by Eric Hovind
Occasionally I write about arguments by fundamentalists. This is one of those times.
As an atheist who writes and does some work online, I have pretty much constant exposure to arguments by all levels of theists, and a variety of theistic beliefs (such as Christians, Muslims, Hindus, etc.). The following argument is one I've seen almost exclusively from fundamentalist Christians; "Without the Bible I'd go out and commit crimes!" although other versions exist and one can just replace the Bible with the holy book of whatever religion the person making this claim happens to be.
One specific example of how this argument might sound comes from Eric Hovind. In a video uploaded June 1st 2012 to the Living Waters YouTube account, Eric Hovind and Ray Comfort discuss the "harmful effects of the evolutionary worldview" and make the claim that without the Bible, without their professed Christianity, he (Eric) would live with "no restraints at all" and Comfort claims that he would "be in jail if he weren't a Christian." But they falsely state that others would react like that as well. This is an absurd claim.
This claim CLEARLY shows more about these individuals than it does for irreligious individuals. But how can it be addressed? One way is by pointing out that atheists are virtually invisible in jail, at least in the United States. This isn't the way I'd do it, personally. I'd counter it by stating that morality is ultimately subjective. Because it is. On a fundamental level, we need to point out that making sweeping generalizations doesn't further any conversation about morality, about humanity, and about the validity of religion. Also: regardless of whether or not one acts "morally" doesn't do anything to prove or disprove the claim that God exists and the Bible is true. The effects of the "evolutionary worldview" on children, have ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with whether or not evolution is true. This is meant to be seen as an argument against teaching children about evolution, but if (and this could arguably be a big "if") the purpose of education is to teach children the truth, then the effects "an evolutionary worldview" has on children is irrelevant to teaching evolution. And given that science education is meant to education children in science and not morality, this is fundamentally an irrelevant argument to make. But it's also a scary one. This reveals that at least a few people have improperly conflated morality and religion to scary results. We need to stop this argument anywhere and everywhere it appears.
What are your thoughts on this argument? On other arguments made by fundamentalists? Do you have any arguments you'd like to see addressed?
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AkAcNyvV4M (the mentioned part begins at roughly 17:30, but more specifically at 19:18 and ends at about 20:14)