The Moral Argument

Does the existence of a standard of right vs. wrong show that God exists? The argument is as follows:

1. If God does not exist, then objective moral duties and values do not exist.
2. Objective moral duties and values exist.
3. Therefore, God exists.

What do we mean by "objective moral duties and values"? We mean that there seems to exist a moral code that is valid and binding for all people at all times, regardless of the cultural values, governments, or ruling authority's say so.

One of the most obvious examples for people of the 20th & 21st centuries is the Holocaust. What Hitler commanded to his nation was morally wrong, even though he believed it was the right thing to do. The world put on trial those who said they were just following orders. Even if the Nazis would have won WWII and killed all who thought differently, it would still be wrong.

1. If God does not exist, then objective moral duties and values do not exist.

So why should we think that objective morality would only exist if God exists? If atheism is true, then everything is just here by accident. There is no purpose, no plan, no right, and no wrong. Everything just is. There is no goal-directedness, no ultimate meaning, and as far as behavior of species goes...well that's just a survival-of-the-fittest mechanism. 

As Richard Dawkins (arguably the world's most well-known atheist) says, "In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference." Dawkins himself points out that if there is no good, no evil, then that's just they way things are. So why does he become so outraged at things he finds offensive in the world? If there is no good and no evil, then certainly it is irrational to lash out at others for just behaving as their genes would have them do, right?

2. Objective moral duties and values exist.

But it seems that Dawkins is grasping at what he wants to deny, an objective realm of good and evil. He is at least acting as if there is some kind of standard that decent human beings should adhere to. He wants to affirm that we should follow the good and do good, and eschew evil and abstain from evil acts, but his entire worldview puts that notion in jeopardy.

Atheist Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Louise Antony, says, "Any argument for moral skepticism is going to be based upon premises which are less obvious than the reality of moral values and duties themselves, and therefore can never be rational to accept moral skepticism."

So when we hear stories of little girls being molested by their drunk fathers, are we right to feel indignation towards that action? Are we right to cry out for justice for that little girl? Is it really wrong what that father did to her, or is just a social taboo?

Everyone has a sense of right an wrong, regardless of how they came to know that standard, and regardless of whether we agree on what that standard is or how we follow that standard. One of the main themes in the Bible is that human beings cannot follow the law, and the human heart is inherently evil.

3. Therefore, God exists.

If the realm of an objective moral standard exists, then where did it come from? Is "the good" some abstract object that just exists out there? If so, what compels us to align ourselves with it? If it isn't something called "the good", but rather a collection of abstract objects like "justice", "fairness", "truthfulness", "charity", etc, then what binds us to those virtues rather than "maliciousness", "treachery", "oppressiveness", etc.

God is the moral standard. God's nature is what we would recognize as good. This is the only way to have a true standard. There have been attempts to place the standard outside of God, but they lack the transcendent grounding that we seem to want to affirm, namely that something is either right or wrong regardless of your feelings or upbringing.

C.S. Lewis said, “My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?”

This brings up a fascinating point: that if we all know the difference between good and evil, then surely the entire human population would be able to recognize that we have all done something wrong in our lives. The story of Jesus offers redemption for those short-comings. Romans 3:23 says "...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...". If this is true, then we require forgiveness or punishment. It is only just for crimes to be punished, unless otherwise forgiven by the one against whom the crimes were committed. God has offered that forgiveness to all of mankind through Jesus Christ. 

If you feel ashamed for some type of wrong you've committed in the past, know that God loves you regardless of your behavior. There is still time to ask for forgiveness. And the all-powerful, all-loving God of the universe has promised that He will extend His hand of mercy and forgiveness to any that will ask. If you don't know the saving power of Jesus, I urge you to read the Gospel of John today and find out the true nature of God's love.


Here are some more resources regarding objective morality:

The Absurdity Of Life Without God

Our lives seem to cry out for significance and meaning. I know many people who are either atheists (they don't believe that God exists) or apatheists (they don't really care if God exists). Most people I know are just concerned with making ends meet, being happy, and just making it through life. 

Now all of that seems just fine on the surface, but we're not here on this blog to stop at those questions, shrug them off, and get on with our lives. No. We're here for something much more. We want to know the truth...no matter what that entails. And to find the truth, we must keep asking questions until we get to the heart of the issue we are trying to understand. That may lead us to other questions, but we want to know it all.

So the question remains: Is this all that we're here for? To live our 70+/- years, acquire stuff, enjoy it while we can, try to do some "good", try to love some people, don't be a jerk, and then die? If that's all there is to it, then in the grand scheme of things life is pretty pointless.

Some of history's greatest thinkers followed the logical consequences of the absurdity to life if there is nothing past this existence. This brand of philosophy is called nihilism: the belief that there is no ultimate meaning, or that any perceived meaning is illusory.

So is it true? If God doesn't exist, is life really meaningless? I think so. At least ultimately, I think so.

If God does not exist, then there are serious consequences to that notion.

1. This life is all there is. If God doesn't exist, then I don't see any reason to think that our "spirit" lives on, there is any such thing as reincarnation, or anything else like that. No, it would seem that you just die and cease to exist. Dust to dust, ashes to ashes, and like a puff of smoke, all that remains is the memory in the minds of those who once knew you.

2. The universe is destined to die out as all of the useful energy is spent and dark matter eventually sends space repelling from itself faster than the speed of light. Most scientists agree that this is the inevitable fate of our universe at some point in the distant future, way past the time that humans have gone extinct on this tiny, insignificant space rock. If this universe is all there is (and there's no scientific evidence to support that other universes exist), then the cold dark reality of a future dead universe is staring us in the face. But, we'll all be gone by then so it's more ominous to think about than any actual consequence we should be worried about.

3. Our actions ultimately have no consequences. This touches on objective morality a bit, but even if we assume that objective morality exists apart from God, it still means nothing in the end. Any good or bad that we do while alive will soon be forgotten as the remaining humans die off and the sun eventually expands to engulf the earth and burn it up. It's not that people won't act like it matters at the time, and it certainly will seem like it matters, but in the end it was just a momentary situation and ultimately meaningless from the perspective of the universe.

Now I've had some atheists tell me that nihilism isn't the default position to take as atheists. But I really don't see why. I mean, if this life is all there is, then whatever strides we've made during our lives was just a means to numb the pain and realization that death was approaching and that all our actions would be forgotten in the heat death of the eventual collapse of the known world.

If this is bumming you out, I'm sorry. My point is not to make you come to the conclusion that life is meaningless, but rather think about what it means if you think that life isn't meaningless! I think we could actually make an argument for the existence of God this way:

1. If God does not exist, then life is meaningless.

2. Life is not meaningless.

3. Therefore, God exists.

Of course this would be a pretty weak argument if you've come to the conclusion that life really is meaningless. And depression is a horrible reality in our culture today. But this would certainly be a reasonable argument for someone who think to himself, "No. It can't be. I really feel as though my life has significance and meaning." Well, then it follows that God exists.

But what if you've come to the conclusion that maybe God exists or maybe he doesn't, but I'm just not sure about this "life has meaning" business. If you can come to believe in God, then you should certainly be able to come to the conclusion that life is full of meaning. And we could rephrase the argument this way:

1. If God does not exist, then life is meaningless.

2. God exists.

3. Therefore, life is not meaningless.

I've never really seen anyone develop these types of arguments before, so I'm ready to be ripped to shreds by some more sophisticated philosopher types. But I think I think I've made my point. And what we need to do from here is examine more evidences for the existence of God to see if it's really true.

More than a year ago, my good friend Boss sent me this video and it sent my head spinning. Ever since watching that video, I've been on a non-stop quest to learn more about what I already thought to be the truth. Because I think I would agree with the first premise of the argument, then I would really want to know if the second premise is true. If the second premise is true, then we have a great hope in front of us to find out about God and to see if he's revealed Himself to us and find out if He wants us to come to know Him. And I think that's the case.

The Kalam Cosmological Argument

1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause.

2. The universe began to exist.

3. Therefore, the universe has a cause.

This argument for the existence of God has been made famous by Dr. William Lane Craig, an excellent Christian apologist known for his high-profile debates with outspoken atheists. The argument finds it's roots in Islamic philosopher Al-Ghazali. The argument is simple, and has become one of the best known arguments for God's existence.

Premise 1: Whatever begins to exist has a cause.

Most people would agree with this premise. Think about it. Just about anything you see in the world has some type of explanation for it's being. A bicycle came together because a worker put it together. The cause was the act of the worker. The frame was welded together by a welder. The cause was the act of the welder. The metal to create the frame came from earth and was gathered by the aluminum excavators, and so on.

Even though this first premise seems rudimentary, it has been attacked by many lately who want to appeal to quantum physics and the weird characteristics of quantum particles. Critics of this first premise would say that quantum physics shows that things really do pop in and out of existence randomly and seemingly without causes. But is this true? First of all, quantum physics doesn't say anything, the physicists interpreting the data do. And there are at least 10 different physical interpretations of quantum mechanics, and no one is sure which is correct.  

See this article for more info: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-many-interpretations-of-quantum-mechanics/

But why should anyone, aside from choosing a quantum theory that supports indeterminacy, believe that things just pop into existence without causes? This flies in the face of our everyday experience. As Dr. Craig would point out, why doesn't anything and everything just pop into existence uncaused out of nothing? Why only this universe? If everything else that we see in the universe that begins to exist has a cause, then surely this would be true of the universe itself (if it really did begin to exist).

Premise 2: The universe began to exist.

This is fairly uncontroversial. Almost all scientists agree that the universe had it's beginning with the Big Bang. In fact, we're taught this principle in school. The theory is so well known that it has made it's way into popular culture as the title of a hit TV sit-com. The Big Bang theory is almost not even a theory anymore, and has been virtually proven beyond any doubts that the universe came into being roughly 14.5 billion years ago and has been expanding ever since.

It was Edwin Hubble who first noticed the "red-shift" in distant stars that indicated the cosmos was moving away from the earth. In every direction Hubble looked, the distant stars and galaxies were expanding away from our point of view. When scientists started to think about the implications of these discoveries, they came to the conclusion that the universe must have exploded into being. The term "Big Bang" was coined by physicist, Fred Hoyle, and it's been called that ever since. Other theories have come along, but the standard Big Bang theory has been scientifically proven time and time again and is now considered the standard model of the origin of the universe.

Again, hardly anyone disputes this fact. So what necessarily follows from these two premises? 

Conclusion: Therefore, the universe has a cause.

Ok, so what? What does this have to do with God? Well, we'll need to do a little thinking to find out what the cause could be.

If time and space came into being at the big bang, then whatever caused the universe must be beyond space and time. That means this thing would be spaceless and timeless.

This thing must also be extremely powerful. For all of space and time to be created out of nothing, the power needed by this thing would have to be approaching the infinite. How else would something be able to create matter and energy where there was no matter and energy to begin with?

This thing would be immaterial. Since matter itself came into existence with the big bang, this thing couldn't be made of matter itself. It would have had to be the creator of the matter.

In addition, this thing would have to be personal. Why personal? Because it would have to have chosen to create in the first place.

So then, what fits the bill of a timeless, spaceless, immaterial, infinitely powerful, and personal being that you've ever heard of? I think you know...God.


For more resources on the Kalam Cosmological Argument, see these videos:

I Just Wanted To Know The Truth...

I'm a Christian. There. I said it.  

I could just as well have been an atheist. In fact, I was for a time. I wasn't raised in a Christian home. At least, I wasn't raised in what I would call a Christian home. My parents never really took me to church when I was a child. Well, I take that back. We went a few times, but it was never really a part of our lives.

I can remember a few instances going to the Methodist church across the street from my house and a few visits to the Presbyterian church about 2-3 miles from home, but we never attended any church regularly. We never discussed God, or Jesus, or the Bible, or what the meaning of life is...we just lived an ordinary middle-class life.

My parents were hard working people that loved their children very much, had lots of friends, liked to tell jokes, go to parties, and do normal everyday middle-class things. My parents were not abusive, they weren't alcoholics (at least not the bad kind), there weren't any torrid extra-marital affairs that I'm aware of, and they didn't ever really discuss deep and important topics like politics and religion. Maybe they did with their friends, but they certainly didn't discuss those types of topics with their children. And I guess I can understand that, because who wants to discuss those types of things with a little child?

When I was in the fourth grade, my father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I remember driving down Merrimac St. in Garland coming home from school one day when my mom broke the news to me. I was crushed. After she told me, I immediately sat up straight in the front seat of the old red suburban we had and shouted, "NO!!!" and started crying. She pulled over and started crying herself and we hugged each other for several minutes. It was a devastating feeling. Even at that young age, somehow I knew it was a death sentence for my father. It wasn't until later they told me what kind of cancer it was and that the doctors only gave him six months live. My world had been turned upside down and for the first moment in my life I just wanted to know the truth...no matter how bad it was.

Well, my dad was a fighter and actually lived for 2 1/2 years more until he couldn't fight anymore. At this time I was in the sixth grade. He had been away at the hospital for 2 weeks, and during that time my family was making arrangements because they knew he wasn't going to be around very much longer. It feels a little surreal now that I'm recalling the events. My mother moved me into the master bedroom, and I was kind of just going along with it realizing in the back of my mind that dad wasn't going to make it.  

It was Spring of 1994, and the science fair was in full swing. I don't remember my project, but my dad helped me put it together just like he always had. That day we found out the winners of the science fair. I came in third place and rode home on the bus that day with my ribbon. When the bus pulled up at the house, I noticed the windows were open to the front room and I somehow immediately knew that my dad was home. I rushed inside to see him in a hospital bed in the front room. I ran over to him with a smile and told him the good news about the third place ribbon. He looked at me a smiled back and said he was proud.

At that moment, the reality of the situation started to sink in and I began to notice to nurse that was there, the crazy tube thing that goes in your nose, all of the machines there keeping him alive. He looked sicker than he ever had before and could barely muster the strength to talk. He couldn't get out of that bed and it was a pretty weird feeling being there. The nurse left and my mom went down to the store for just a few minutes and I was left there alone with my father. He started to yell for me in a very struggled tone and asked me to get his medication. I went to the kitchen and didn't see any, so I frantically ran back to the front room and started to panic.

"I don't know where it is, dad!", I said.

"It's on the counter in the kitchen.", he replied in his struggling tone.

"I looked but there isn't anything there!"  At this point I started to cry thinking it might be my fault if my dad dies right now because I don't know where or which medication he needs.

My dad looked me in the eye and took a gulp and grasped for air and mustered up the strength to say, "I'm dying, Scott."

At that point I heard my mother drive up in the back and I ran out to her to help. She came in, found the medication and gave it him. That was the last time I ever saw my father alive.

I went outside to the back yard, sat in a chair, and for the first time ever I prayed to God. I asked Him to let my father die so that he wouldn't be in pain anymore. I cried some more and then my mom took me to basketball practice a few minutes later. That night I didn't come home. My sister stayed with a friend and I stayed over at my best friend's house. That night my mom called over to my friend's house and told me the news that my dad had passed away. I was calm then and just said, "Ok.", and hung up the phone and stayed the night with Robert.

Within a few years after my father's death, I was in high school and really struggling with the deep questions of life. I figured that all that God stuff was just a bunch of hocus-pocus, and got fed the line from my freshman history teacher that religion was invented to keep the peasants in line. I guess that made sense to me somehow. I never questioned it. It just seemed right. By my Junior year, I fully believed that the idea of God was ridiculous, and Christianity in particular was for weak-minded simpletons who were too afraid to face reality.

I felt a little superior to people because of losing my dad. Superior because I had been thrust into life prematurely to deal with serious issues that almost no one else my age had to deal with. That gave me a sense of adultness that my other friends in school just didn't have. My good friend, Boss, was also an atheist at the time.  Although he'll tell you that we probably weren't really atheists, but that we were just mad at God for some reason. And I guess that makes sense to me if I really think about it. Even though I asked God to take my father away from his pain, what I really wanted for Him to do was restore my father to full health and give me back my nice happy middle-class family life that I had before my dad got sick. But God doesn't give us what we want. He gives us what we need.

At the height of my atheism, Boss and I were openly making fun of our Christian friends. We'd tell them that God doesn't exist, and that they are idiots for thinking that He does. We'd ridicule anyone for praying, because if God didn't exist, then obviously prayer is futile. I specifically remember a time after school when our show choir was rehearsing for a big concert and things were getting tense because it was late and we were all tired. We couldn't get the song down, and the singers were having problems with the choreography, and one girl said over the microphone, "Guys. We just need to stop and pray real quick."  Boss and I looked at each other in disgust and immediately said to them, "No, we're not doing that. Prayer isn't going to do anything for anybody! You guys just need to get it together and learn your steps so we can get out of here." They ignored us and said a prayer anyway and then we finished up the rehearsal and went home. It is a vivid memory for me because they didn't argue, they didn't try and defend their faith, they just let us say what we wanted to say, and then prayed anyway.

It wasn't too long after that time that I had my own conversion moment. I was changed in an evening. I went from being sure that their was no God, to being convinced that God does exist. And it was all because of a man I trusted, and that man had good responses to my questions about the meaning of life, history, aliens, dinosaurs, and who knows what else. It doesn't really matter what was said, but that I came to believe that God existed. I just assumed that if God existed, then He was the God of the Bible. 

Now I'm fully aware that none of this means that God really does exists, or that if He does exist that the He is the same God that is revealed in the Christian Bible. But I intend to state my case in this blog that the God of the universe and of all existence IS the God that is revealed in the holy scriptures known as the Bible.

Ever since that day, I've never looked back. I've never not believed that God existed. I've never not believed that Christianity was true. But interestingly enough, it took about six months for me to understand who Jesus was and that He was crucified so that I would have eternal life. It took six months for me to realize that all I had to do was recognize that Jesus was the son of God, and that his sacrifice was enough to bring me into eternal fellowship with the creator of life itself. And then I was saved. 

It was on a plane ride back from Orlando, FL when I first read the Gospel of John. The parents of my friend, Robert (the one whose house I was at the night my father passed) ,gave me a teen study Bible for Christmas one year. I always thought it to be a lame gift at the time, but it turned out to be one of the greatest gifts I'd ever received. That night when I first read the story about how Jesus was here to save mankind from eternal separation from God, I was born again. I became a new person. I had a literal born-again experience. 

All of a sudden, I began to see that I was imperfect and needed forgiveness. I'd never felt like that before. I mean, I'd heard it before but I never understood until that night. And then I began to understand why Jesus had to come and die a miserable death. I began to see that only God himself could rescue us from ourselves. And that night, I knelt down at my bedside and I asked God to forgive me of my sins, and I placed my trust in Jesus to be my Savior. And I've been a changed man ever since. Not perfect. But changed forever.

The purpose of this blog is to help others come to faith in Jesus. And I intend to show people that there are good reasons to be a Christian. The story is great, but the evidence is even greater. God can draw a man in by His Spirit alone without a doubt, just like He has to millions throughout history, but in our increasingly skeptical age the good news of salvation is getting harder and harder to hear through the noise of life. My intention is to show that you don't have to leave your brain at the door in order to be a Christian.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:14, if Christ has not risen from the dead then our faith is in vain. The reason to be a Christian is not because it feels good, or because your parents were Christians, or because you live in the Bible Belt, or because it sounds nice. The reason to be a Christian is because it's true. And I just want to know the truth. So together we'll tackle the tough questions in life and see if Christianity can hold up to the critical scrutiny of the scientific age. And for those with an open heart, I think you'll come to the same conclusion that I have: that God exists, and this man named Jesus of Nazareth who started a religious revolution in the first century out of Jerusalem is the savior of mankind and came to bring all to eternal life.

- Scott Neal