Morality for an atheist father | The functional importance of the family construct

I have recently reshaped my thinking around the practical value of the Bible in the context of family, community and culture. I am finding myself increasingly on the conservative side of the conversation around family values, marriage, and friendship, but from a first principles perspective.

Still atheist

This is not a change in my position with respect to one or more gods. I have already had the combative conversations around the existence of God with friends and family in my twenties. I no longer harbour any ambition to convince anyone of the “intellectual superiority of my absence of belief”, childish as that statement now seems with my slightly more mature constitution.

I have found a deep appreciation, however, for the guidance encapsulated in the lessons from the Bible, albeit from the perspective of appreciating the immense collective wisdom of those who came before. The Bible, the Quran or any religious text for that matter, really. From an anthropological perspective, these texts are a collection of lessons that have demonstrated success in…