Is God the Basis for Morality? Part 3

As you recall from part 1 and part 2, I argued that it is more rational to believe that morals originated from an intrinsically valuable, intelligent Creator (commonly known as God) than for morals to have emerged evolutionarily through a valueless, non-intelligent, cause-effect physical process.

To defend this argument, I suggested three criteria that every valid ethical system of morality should require. First, any sufficient moral system should have an objective standard of what is right and wrong. Second, any sufficient moral system should explain the connection between free will and human responsibility. Third, any sufficient moral system should present justification for human value. In this paper, I will argue the third point.

#3. Any sufficient moral system should explain human value and rights.

A professor I had in school was physically abused by his mother. He shared two instances from his childhood where he almost died from her hands. When he was just a toddler, his Mom came home from the bars and was Vodka-drunk. She was angry and upset about something and decided to take it out on him by throwing him down a flight of stairs. He shared another time when he was in middle school. He and his brother were riding their bikes outside and mother decided to pull out a gun and start shooting at them. He even had a bullet in his bike; that’s how close she came to killing him.

We find these acts wrong because humans are intrinsically valuable and have rights, such as “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” When I mean intrinsic, I am saying that my professor and everyone else is in the world are valuable, no matter what others think. His mom thought he was invaluable, but she was wrong. Professor struggled to think he was valuable because all the physical abuse led to a low self-esteem, but he was still valuable. Unfortunately, society didn’t think he was that valuable. Therefore, what options are left? Either his genes through a process of Naturalistic evolution, or a God who loves Him unconditionally.

Let’s ask the genes. His genes are half right. They do care about professor to survive and flourish. Maybe to survive he needs to think positively about himself so he can have the will power to overcome his abusive mother. However, the genes don’t care about the psychological trauma he felt as a child. DNA doesn’t possess empathy. They only care about survival. Even Atheist Michael Ruse once said: “Objective morality is a corporate illusion that has been deceiving us by our genes to get us to cooperate.” What Ruse is saying here is that genes don’t really believe there is anything intrinsically wrong with “physical abuse,” it’s just a road block that gets in your way from surviving longer.

This of course, is a problem for the Naturalist, especially when you ask where moral values come from. Why think that an impersonal, physical, valueless process will produce valuable people? From valueless, valueless comes. Furthermore, how can you tell a material physical property like the genes in your DNA that has extension, shape, and size to produce moral values? A physical property may be red, smooth to the touch, or 5 feet tall, but they can’t measure or weigh “justice” “love” or in this case, the “wrongness” of physical abuse.

I believe that God is the better explanation for the origin of human value. Since value properties like “justice” “love” and “goodness” are not physically measurable, they must exist in a mental state. If they exist in a mental state, it’s more likely they exist in an intelligent mind, who is the source of moral values, than just floating in some supernatural realm. If morals originated in an intelligent mind and this intelligent mind is the Supreme Being (God), it has the authority to judge certain values like “justice” and “Compassion” and to condemn vices like “cruelty” and “abuse.”

In the end, I find God to be a more rational explanation for explaining human values than any alternative. If you have objections, questions, or thoughts, please feel free to comment below. Thanks and have a great day!