"You can be good without God"

A debate, reported here, featuring Dan Barker, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, discussed the merits of the atheist ad campaign with Dan Waugh, pastor of Adult Ministries at the Evangelical Community Church in Bloomington. It contained the following exchange:-

“I’m not against the campaign at all, I welcome it,” Waugh said. “It allows for this debate, it is not a threat.”

The mood changed when Barker asked Waugh a question.

“If God told you to, would you kill me?” Barker asked.

The question drew laughter from the audience and a pause from Waugh.

“If there was a specific verse saying Dan Waugh should kill Dan Barker, then I would have to consider it,” Waugh responded, drawing more laughter and applause from the filled auditorium.

quedula says: One would have liked to know where the debate went after this. Maybe it was just a jokey retort to deflect a difficult question. If serious why would Waugh have even needed to consider for the merest instance whether or not to follow God's command. Perhaps he realises his inbuilt decentness and morality would give him pause. Pause to consider perhaps whether a God that issued such commands really could exist? Yet there is no difference between that God and the God of the Bible which Waugh presumably accepts as God's word.