There are four basic evidences of God's existence: 1) Creation, 2) Design, 3) Morality and 4) Fine Tuning. In this post we'll look at the evidence of morality.
The fact that we all have a moral standard powerfully points to the existence of God. Exact ethical codes vary from person to person and culture to culture, but every human being is born with a moral standard.
Even if you’re not a Christian - How many times have you started to do something, and an alarm in your head went off saying “Don’t do that!” How many times have you opened your mouth and your conscience said, “Don’t say it!”? You know what the right thing is, even if you don’t always do it, right? Well, where did that universal sense of “right” come from? Have you ever thought about that?
On what basis is something considered good or evil, right or wrong? And where did this basis come from? No one really believes that these metaphysical morals came from a physical explosion (like the Big Bang). That is, even if the Big Bang could account for the origin of the universe, you still need to account for the origin of morality. We have, then, what is sometimes referred to as the problem of “good”.
Think about it... If there were a culture that killed their firstborn male babies by burning them to death in a fire in order to gain the favor of their gods, we would consider this a morally dreadful act. If there were a culture in which men kept females as slaves and beat and raped them at will, we would be morally outraged. If there were a culture that locked up people with certain skin colors or people of certain ethnicities or people who were left-handed, we would decry these actions as moral abominations.
The fact that we all have a moral standard powerfully points to the existence of God. Exact ethical codes vary from person to person and culture to culture, but every human being is born with a moral standard.
Even if you’re not a Christian - How many times have you started to do something, and an alarm in your head went off saying “Don’t do that!” How many times have you opened your mouth and your conscience said, “Don’t say it!”? You know what the right thing is, even if you don’t always do it, right? Well, where did that universal sense of “right” come from? Have you ever thought about that?
On what basis is something considered good or evil, right or wrong? And where did this basis come from? No one really believes that these metaphysical morals came from a physical explosion (like the Big Bang). That is, even if the Big Bang could account for the origin of the universe, you still need to account for the origin of morality. We have, then, what is sometimes referred to as the problem of “good”.
Think about it... If there were a culture that killed their firstborn male babies by burning them to death in a fire in order to gain the favor of their gods, we would consider this a morally dreadful act. If there were a culture in which men kept females as slaves and beat and raped them at will, we would be morally outraged. If there were a culture that locked up people with certain skin colors or people of certain ethnicities or people who were left-handed, we would decry these actions as moral abominations.
Well, where did this sense of right and wrong come from? How is it that we all know intrinsically that murder and rape and bigotry and racism are wrong? It’s because of this knowledge that we could boldly tell the Nazis that exterminating Jews was wrong and that they deserved to be punished for such wicked acts. It’s because of this knowledge that we knew Saddam Hussein was doing evil when he oppressed the Iraqi people, murdered his own family members, tortured and killed those he considered political threats, and ordered the gassing of thousands of Kurds. But again, where did we get this knowledge of right and wrong?
While atheists have no answer to this question, Christians do. We believe that a Moral Lawgiver actually knit these moral standards, along with the ability to understand and operate by them, into the very fabric of what it means to be human. This is exactly what the apostle Paul taught in...
Romans 2:14-15, “Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right.” NLT
The Bible says your internal moral compass was put there by God AND that you should listen to it. It’s like a spiritual version of the “check engine” indicator in your car. When you sense it going off, you better listen or there’s going to be trouble (either now or later). Apart from God, there’s really no good answer as to how every human from every culture on every continent has this internal moral compass.
And in the same way that creation points towards a creator and design points towards a designer, so our sense of morality points towards a Moral Standard Giver (who Christians call God).
While atheists have no answer to this question, Christians do. We believe that a Moral Lawgiver actually knit these moral standards, along with the ability to understand and operate by them, into the very fabric of what it means to be human. This is exactly what the apostle Paul taught in...
Romans 2:14-15, “Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right.” NLT
The Bible says your internal moral compass was put there by God AND that you should listen to it. It’s like a spiritual version of the “check engine” indicator in your car. When you sense it going off, you better listen or there’s going to be trouble (either now or later). Apart from God, there’s really no good answer as to how every human from every culture on every continent has this internal moral compass.
And in the same way that creation points towards a creator and design points towards a designer, so our sense of morality points towards a Moral Standard Giver (who Christians call God).
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