An atheist might say you can be good without believing in God. However the question isn’t can you be good without believing in God but can you be good without God?
Here’s the problem if there’s no God. What basis remains for objective good or bad, right or wrong?
If God does not exist objective moral values do not exist. Here’s why. Without some objective reference point we really have no way of saying something is up or down. Gods nature however provides an objective reference point for moral values. It’s the standard which all action and thoughts are measured. However, if there is no God then there is no objective reference point. All we are left with is one persons view point as opposed to some other persons view point. This makes morality subjective not objective.
It’s like a preference for vanilla ice cream. The preference is in the subject not the object. Therefore it doesn’t apply to other people. In the same way subjective morality applies only to the subject. It’s not valid or binding to anyone else. In a world without God there can be no evil or good. Only blind, pitiless indifference.
God has revealed His moral nature to us through commands. These provide the basis for moral duties. For example: God has expressed His moral nature to us that He is love through the command “Love your neighbor as yourself”. This command provides a foundation on which we can affirm the objective goodness of generosity, sacrifice and equality. At the same time we can condemn what is objectively evil as greed, abuse and discrimination.
Here’s the problem: is something good just because God wills it or does God will it because it’s good? The answer is neither one. This is what we call a false dilemma. Instead we say God wills something because He is good. God is the standard of moral values. Just like a live musical performance is the standard for a hi fidelity recording. The more a recording sounds like the original the better it is. Like wise the more an action conforms to God’s nature the better it is.
However, if atheism is true there is no objective standard. Therefore there can be no moral obligation or duties. Who or what lays such duties on us? No one. Remember, for atheists humans are just accidents of nature. We are highly evolved animals. Animals have no moral obligations to one another. When a cat kills a mouse it has not done anything morally wrong. The cat is just being a cat. If God doesn’t exist we should view human behavior in the same way. No action should be considered morally right or wrong. But the problem is good and bad, right and wrong do exist. Just like our sense experience convinces us the physical world is objectively real. Our moral experience convinces us that moral values are objectively real. Every time you say, “Hey that’s not fair, that’s wrong, that’s an injustice.” You affirm your belief in the existence of objective moral values. We are well aware that child abuse, racial discrimination and terrorism are wrong for everyone, always. Now is this just a personal preference or opinion? No. The person who says that it is morally acceptable to rape little children is just as mistaken as the person who says 2+2=5.
What we have then is the moral argument for the existence of God. If God doesn’t exist, objective moral values and duties do not exist. However, objective moral values and duties do exist. Therefore God exists.
Atheism fails to provide a foundation for the moral reality that everyone of us experiences everyday. In fact the existence of objective morality points directly to the existence of God.
In order for someone to declare objective moral values and duties exist but don’t believe in God, they have to borrow for the biblical worldview to make that claim. Apart from that their values are subjective.
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