Vox Day: Fake Christian, or Fake Libertarian?

Vox Day is a self-professed Christian, and a self-professed libertarian. He also thinks that non-Christians cannot justify the condemnation of rape. Lets see what he has to say:

The Judeo-Christian moral ethic is clear – rape is a sin, a willful pollution of a temple that rightly belongs to God. Neither the Jew nor the Christian need hesitate before asserting the act of rape to be evil and justly holding the rapist accountable. But this ethic does not offer a blanket excuse to victims, near victims and would-be victims either, since the element of consent – which today draws the dividing line between sex and rape – can also provide a contrarian condemnation of the woman's own actions.

To Vox, rape is only immoral if you subscribe to the arbitrary dictates of an Abrahamic creator-God. Also, Vox thinks that everyone is owned not by themselves, but by God. So much for the libertarian concept of self-ownership!

Since only the woman who is not entertaining the possibility of sex with a man and is subsequently raped can truly be considered a wholly innocent victim under this ethic, it is no wonder that women who insist that internal consent is the sole determining factor of a woman's victimization find traditional Western morality to be inherently distasteful.

To Vox, date rape does not exist. Vox thinks that if a woman flirts with a man, then he can fuck her and she has no grounds for protest. Where are the libertarian values of non-coercion, individuality, and the right to self? And how does Vox define "traditional Western morality" anyway? I'm assuming he means Christian morality, which isn't a morality at all, but an arbitrary dictate from an all-powerful authority figure (again, where are the libertarian values? Libertarians don't blindly submit to self-appointed authority figures and their dictates). But I would contend that Christian morality is not "traditional Western morality." If anything, Biblical morality could be called "traditional Middle-Eastern morality," but that's quite a bit different.

Vox Day also spends a considerable amount of time looking at this topic from Islamic, Pagan, and other religious perspectives. Clearly, the only "morality" that Vox Day can conceive of is one of a religious dictate from an all-powerful God or gods. These ideas are totally antithetical to libertarianism. Remember, libertarianism focuses on individuality, self-determination, non-coercion, and a refusal to blindly follow the rules of self-appointed authority figures. Eventually, Vox makes his anti-libertarianism quite clear:

As I have previously asserted, most atheist and agnostic morality is parasitical, the cultural residue of previous generations.

Vox has really put himself in a bad spot here. First of all, he accidentally declared with a proverbial bullhorn that he either doesn't understand, or he totally rejects libertarianism. Secondly, he sets up a straw man about atheism. Atheism, in itself, has nothing to say about morality. There are all kinds of atheists with vastly different concepts of morality. But libertarianism does indeed have something to say about morality, and Vox has rejected it completely. What is it about Vox that makes him a libertarian exactly? He seems to like capitalism, but that in itself isn't libertarianism. He seems to be more of a supporter of the Jesus Regime when it comes to morality. You can't get much farther away from libertarianism than that!

And while "might makes right" is the true essence of atheist amorality, it is not exactly the most convincing means of attempting to assert the moral evil of the rapist.

Good luck supporting that statement, Vox! I would pay money to see a "might = right" moral code that is truly derived from the negative claim of atheism. Again, atheism has nothing to say about morality; atheism makes no positive claims. Vox is in the land of straw men. The sad part is that I think he isn't even aware of his straw men. His understanding of atheism is woefully inadequate, and here he is shooting his mouth off. I wonder if Vox even understands the difference between a positive and a negative claim?

Francois Tremblay has written a terrific response to Vox's ignorant claim that atheism says "might = right." Francois says:

The only ones who believe that "might makes right" are God believers, who claim that God has absolute power over all human beings, and can wipe them all out, simply because it has the might. Now that's amorality for you. I have never heard of any atheist who believes this principle - in fact, most atheists tend to be relativists or utilitarians, which is stupid, but very different from "might makes right".

In fact, the only people I know who use power as a standard of morality are followers of collectivist belief systems, like Christianity. Historically, Christianity has always assumed a role of moral nad political dictatorship when it was in power. Christians still attempt to use the social power they have left in the United States to dictate the value-expression of other people.

Their whole moral mindset is that "might (God's might, that is) creates and dictates right", and the subversion of individual values in one's own mind, so how could Christianity possibly be conductive to free value-expression in society ?

Well put, Franc. I couldn't have said it better myself. So much for Vox's absurd claims of which ideology subscribes to "might = right." Vox's God has all the might, so to Vox, whatever his God says is right. Vox is a really confused Christian. He projects "might = right" onto atheism, when in truth it is part of his own belief system, then he expresses his inherent distaste for it, which is especially ironic. Someone should let him know about this contradiction of his. When he finds out about his mistake, I wonder what conclusion he will come to, that his God is immoral, or that "might = right" is ok after all? But Vox still has more to say:

There may be a genuine moral argument against rape to be made outside of the Judeo-Christian ethic, but I have yet to hear it.

Indeed. Vox hasn't heard much -and doesn't know much- about atheism, his own "might = right" Christian ideology, or the moral code within libertarianism. It's kind of sad to watch Vox claim ignorance as a justification for making up things at whim and assigning the wrong features to the wrong worldviews.

Finally, Vox gives us an argument that we can use to attack his own Christian morality:

When each does what is right in his own eyes, all distinctions between right and wrong become meaningless.

Hey Vox, does that include when God does what is right in His own eyes as well? Why or why not?

Vox Day is, quite clearly, a Christoid fundie. He doesn't express or practice any moral code that could be considered libertarian in the slightest sense. Christian morality is antithetical to libertarian morality, and Vox subscribes to the former. Christian morality is the essence of "might = right" while libertarian morality is the exact opposite, and again, Vox subscribes to the former. No wonder Vox thinks that non-Christians can't declare rape immoral! His only concept of morality isn't morality at all, but merely a Christian "might = right" set of rules. Non-coercion is a foreign concept to him.

Vox Day is a true Christian, and a fake libertarian.