Does God Exist? – Part 4 A brief look at the moral argument

What do C.S. Lewis and Francis Collins have in common? If you answered that they both converted from atheism to Christianity because of the moral argument for God you would be correct. In fact it was Lewis’ book Mere Christianity that convinced Collins that God did indeed exist. Naturalism has been unable to come up with a convincing argument for the existence of morality in humans. In fact, outside of humans, nature is morally neutral.

So what is the moral argument?

1     Objective moral truth (moral law) exist

2     A moral truth (law) giver must exist

3    Therefore God exists

All human societies have basic moral beliefs such as stealing, lying and murder is wrong. These beliefs transcend societies and cultures even very young children know that taking something that does not belong to you is wrong. If you don’t believe that just try taking a toy from a toddler. Anything as transcendent as moral truths must come from outside humanity to be so universally accepted.

Biology or Darwinian evolution has been unable to come up with a method for universal moral truth to evolve. As anyone observing it can see nature is morally neutral. Animals kill and eat other animals and that is their nature and is amoral. Even altruism would seem to break down from an evolutionary perspective once one gets past a blood relationship. That a parent would die to protect a child might be explained by evolution but how does one explain total strangers dying to save someone that are not related to. How do you explain a soldier who falls on a bomb to those around them? In these instances there is something higher than self in play. Dying to save a stranger does nothing to keep one’s genes from being passed on to future generations.

As to the existence of evil as a response to the existence of God I would direct you to my post on the “Problem of Evil” elsewhere on the blog.

Some will argue that morality does not exist and that we are all shaped and driven by our genes. They will tell you there is no free will. Yet when pressed they will refuse to let a killer go just because the killer was not responsible. And if you take something that is theirs they will hold you responsible, saying my genes made me steal from you will not cut it. They want you punished. In fact our entire system of laws is based on the premise that we not only can know we are doing something wrong but we are capable of controlling the urge to break the law. When someone is too mentally impaired to know right from wrong we find them innocent by reason of the mental impairment.

Of all the arguments for God the moral argument is the best for the existence of a loving God that we find in the Bible. For further reading I can think of nothing better than C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. It is the one book, other than the Bible, that I know from personal experience that has changed people from atheism to Christianity. For those interested in pursuing the problems of evil check out either. C.S. Lewis’ The Problem of Pain or Norman Geisler’s If God Why Evil?.  Finally for those interested in a readable but academically sound book on Christian apologetics I recommend Norman Geisler’s book I Don’t have Enough Faith to be an Atheist, you can check out my review in this blog.

Next time I will look at Intelligent Design as it pertains to biological systems as a proof of a designer and by inference God. While this is technically part of the Teleological proof for God I feel it needed additional treatment as Intelligent Design takes on some of evolution’s most sacred cows.

Have a blessed day,

David