Lesson 6- Goodness Without God?
Notes
Transcript
Handout
What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.
The question that we will explore today is a very simple one. “Can we be good without God?”
Some find a question such as this offensive, believing that it insinuates that a person who does not believe in God cannot be good.
This misunderstands the question. For what is being asked regards the very nature of moral values and their origins not the capacity of individuals to behave in a moral manner.
What is the Basis of our Values?
What is the Basis of our Values?
Many philosophers suggest that just as there is an objective natural order so also is there an objective moral order just as real and independent of us.
Are these moral values then based on:
Social Convention?
Personal Preference?
Evolution?
God?
The Moral Argument for God’s Existence
The Moral Argument for God’s Existence
If God does not exist, objective moral values and duties do not exist.
Objective moral values and duties do exist.
Therefore, God exists.
Premise 1
Premise 1
Notice in premise 1 the distinction between moral values and moral duties.
Moral Value refers to the worth of a person or action, whether it is good or bad.
Moral Duty refers to our obligation to act in a certain ay, whether that action is right or wrong.
Notice also that the premise concerns “objective” moral values and duties, meaning independent of people’s personal opinions.
Holocaust was objectively wrong- even though many of the Nazis who carried it out thought that it was right.
Premise 1 asserts that, if there is no God, then moral values and duties are not objective in that sense.
Defense of Premise 1
Defense of Premise 1
The naturalistic view for the explanation of moral values asserts that morality is simply the by-product of biological evolution and social conditioning.
The naturalist believes that humans exhibit cooperative and even self-sacrificial behavior because natural selection has determined it to be advantageous in the struggle for survival.
They believe that humans have evolved a sort of “herd morality” which exists because it functions well in the perpetuation of our society.
Yet without God there is no reason that the the morality that may have developed should be considered objectively true.
We can thus conclude that in order to have a set of moral values which are objectively true we need God.
In the view of the atheist, humans are simply highly evolved primates and part of the animal kingdom.
Yet consider what this means in light of moral obligations. Is is murder when a lion kills a zebra? Why is there such distinction between the lion who kills and the human who commits murder?
If God does not exist why should we be morally obligated to do anything? Who or what imposes these moral duties upon us?
If there is no God how could these obligations be anything more than a subjective impression resulting from societal and parental conditioning.
Humanists suggest that morality springs from whatever allows mankind to flourish is good and that whatever is to mankind’s detriment is bad.
Naziism and the cultivation of a master race would in theory be good for humanity if atheism and evolution are true.
Defense of Premise 2
Defense of Premise 2
Most people in our world today hold to the belief that there are at least some basic objective moral values which are true.
Moral Experience leads us to draw such a conclusion when we assert that some things are objectively good or evil, right or wrong.
Some actions like, rape, torture, and child abuse are not just considered socially unacceptable but are considered absolutely morally wrong.
On the other hand, love, generosity, and self-sacrifice are considered absolutely morally good.
Crusades- forced conversion, catholic sexual abuse, Hindu practice of suttee- burning widows alive on the funeral pyres of their husbands, persecution of homosexuals.
Any honest and sincere individual will agree that there are objective moral values and duties.
Some again object with the assertion that our morality is only the product of evolution and social conditioning and yet this does nothing to disprove the fact that objective moral values and duties do exist. It would only serve to undermine their legitimacy leading us to believe that these objective values and duties are actually an illusion.
Yet this objection assumes that God does not exist and that all that exists is merely the product of chance and accident, a claim which evidence does not support.
Conclusion
Conclusion
For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)
If atheism and naturalism were true there would be no basis upon which to build an objective standard of moral values and duties.
Our own experience and the experiences of people across the globe serve to support the conclusion that objective moral values and duties do exist.
If premise 1 and premise 2 appear to be most plausibly true, then we must conclude that God does exist and that He provides this objective standard of good and evil, right and wrong.
Some have surmised that this standard is merely some arbitrary standard imposed upon us by God, but the truth is that the objective moral values and duties which exist arise from the very nature and character of God.
He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
He is the Rock, his work is perfect:
For all his ways are judgment:
A God of truth and without iniquity,
Just and right is he.
The Lord is righteous in all his ways,
And holy in all his works.
Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
Yea, our God is merciful.
Throughout the scriptures we find the nature and character of God revealed to us, and in Him we can see the objective moral values and duties which we observe in our own experiences.