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MORALITY DIRECTS US TO GOD
And our understanding and intuitions about morality and ethics confirms that.
Something that all of us experience on a daily basis is morality, or our sense that some things really ARE good and some things really ARE evil; some things really ARE right, and some things really ARE wrong.
Following these moral senses, here is a simple, logically airtight, version of the moral argument demonstrating that IF things really ARE good/evil, right/wrong, then it follows logically that God exists:
Premise 1: If God does not exist, objective moral values and duties do not exist.
Premise 2: Objective moral values and duties exist.
Conclusion: Therefore, God exists.
It is important we recognize the difference between a moral VALUE and a moral DUTY. "Moral value refers to the worth of a person or action, whether it is good or evil. Moral duty refers to our obligation to act in a certain way, whether that action is right or wrong." (Craig, Values and Duties, On Guard, p. 171)
We also need to realize the difference between "objective" and "subjective." Objective means "independent of someone, or a group of person's, opinions" while subjective means "dependent on someone's, or a group of person's, opinions." Our premise relates to moral values and duties apart from anyone's opinion.
NOTICE: This argument IS NOT saying that someone must BELIEVE in God in order to do good things. "Belief" in God is irrelevant to the argument. The argument is saying that GOD MUST EXIST in order for objective good/evil, right/wrong to exist, regardless of if someone believes that to be true. Many non-believers do good things (often better things than believers do). But that isn't the argument. The argument is answering why there is even the category of "good" in the first place.
How can we defend this logically airtight argument?
EVIDENCE IN SUPPORT OF THE TRUTH OF PREMISE 1
On morality, Charles Darwin once wrote,
"If … men were reared under precisely the same conditions as hive bees, there can hardly be a doubt that our unmarried females would, like the worker-bees, think it a sacred duty to kill their brothers, and mothers would strive to kill their fertile daughters; and no one would think of interfering." (Darwin, The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to ***, p. 100)
Indeed, on a worldview that says God does not exist, human beings are nothing more than relatively advanced animals. And we know that in the animal kingdom, there is no such thing as "morality." When a lion hunts and kills a zebra, can that lion be taken to court on murder charges? That's absurd! The lion simply kills the zebra, but it does not MURDER the zebra.
Or how about when male animals forcibly copulate with female animals, as Lalumière et al observe among dozens of animal species in the wild? (Lalumière, "Forced Copulation in the Animal Kingdom"). Can these male animals be taken to court and charged with rape? That would also be absurd!
We rightly judge and punish murder, rape, incest, and various other things that apparently also happen in the animal kingdom, and by which we DO not punish animals for committing.
If we are merely animals, then moral categories would not apply to us.
Second, atheistic moral platonism doesn't work either. Moral values are properties of persons, and moral duties are actions of persons, not abstract objects. Moreover, even if morality were an abstract object, that would provide no obligation for conforming to it. Finally, there is no good reason to think we would be any different than any other animal if God does not exist. Morality would not have just popped into existence.
Without the existence of God, we have no place to ground our objective morality.
EVIDENCE IN SUPPORT OF THE TRUTH OF PREMISE 2
And that is the problem, isn't it? We know objective moral values and duties exist. Not only do we intuitively know this, we live our entire lives based on morality. Every society in the world is founded on the basis that moral values and duties ARE objective apart from what we think about them.
Murder really IS evil.
Rape really IS evil.
****philia really IS evil.
Torturing babies for fun really IS evil.
...no matter what anyone thinks, and no matter what anyone feels.
Because moral values and duties are objective, and because they cannot be objective without the existence of God, then it follows logically...
God is the ground of morality, and so God exists.
CTTO
And our understanding and intuitions about morality and ethics confirms that.
Something that all of us experience on a daily basis is morality, or our sense that some things really ARE good and some things really ARE evil; some things really ARE right, and some things really ARE wrong.
Following these moral senses, here is a simple, logically airtight, version of the moral argument demonstrating that IF things really ARE good/evil, right/wrong, then it follows logically that God exists:
Premise 1: If God does not exist, objective moral values and duties do not exist.
Premise 2: Objective moral values and duties exist.
Conclusion: Therefore, God exists.
It is important we recognize the difference between a moral VALUE and a moral DUTY. "Moral value refers to the worth of a person or action, whether it is good or evil. Moral duty refers to our obligation to act in a certain way, whether that action is right or wrong." (Craig, Values and Duties, On Guard, p. 171)
We also need to realize the difference between "objective" and "subjective." Objective means "independent of someone, or a group of person's, opinions" while subjective means "dependent on someone's, or a group of person's, opinions." Our premise relates to moral values and duties apart from anyone's opinion.
NOTICE: This argument IS NOT saying that someone must BELIEVE in God in order to do good things. "Belief" in God is irrelevant to the argument. The argument is saying that GOD MUST EXIST in order for objective good/evil, right/wrong to exist, regardless of if someone believes that to be true. Many non-believers do good things (often better things than believers do). But that isn't the argument. The argument is answering why there is even the category of "good" in the first place.
How can we defend this logically airtight argument?
EVIDENCE IN SUPPORT OF THE TRUTH OF PREMISE 1
On morality, Charles Darwin once wrote,
"If … men were reared under precisely the same conditions as hive bees, there can hardly be a doubt that our unmarried females would, like the worker-bees, think it a sacred duty to kill their brothers, and mothers would strive to kill their fertile daughters; and no one would think of interfering." (Darwin, The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to ***, p. 100)
Indeed, on a worldview that says God does not exist, human beings are nothing more than relatively advanced animals. And we know that in the animal kingdom, there is no such thing as "morality." When a lion hunts and kills a zebra, can that lion be taken to court on murder charges? That's absurd! The lion simply kills the zebra, but it does not MURDER the zebra.
Or how about when male animals forcibly copulate with female animals, as Lalumière et al observe among dozens of animal species in the wild? (Lalumière, "Forced Copulation in the Animal Kingdom"). Can these male animals be taken to court and charged with rape? That would also be absurd!
We rightly judge and punish murder, rape, incest, and various other things that apparently also happen in the animal kingdom, and by which we DO not punish animals for committing.
If we are merely animals, then moral categories would not apply to us.
Second, atheistic moral platonism doesn't work either. Moral values are properties of persons, and moral duties are actions of persons, not abstract objects. Moreover, even if morality were an abstract object, that would provide no obligation for conforming to it. Finally, there is no good reason to think we would be any different than any other animal if God does not exist. Morality would not have just popped into existence.
Without the existence of God, we have no place to ground our objective morality.
EVIDENCE IN SUPPORT OF THE TRUTH OF PREMISE 2
And that is the problem, isn't it? We know objective moral values and duties exist. Not only do we intuitively know this, we live our entire lives based on morality. Every society in the world is founded on the basis that moral values and duties ARE objective apart from what we think about them.
Murder really IS evil.
Rape really IS evil.
****philia really IS evil.
Torturing babies for fun really IS evil.
...no matter what anyone thinks, and no matter what anyone feels.
Because moral values and duties are objective, and because they cannot be objective without the existence of God, then it follows logically...
God is the ground of morality, and so God exists.
CTTO