Posted on 02/26/2003 7:19:40 AM PST by Nix 2
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If there is an absolute standard of morality, then there must be a God. Disagree? Consider the alternative. |
God's existence has direct bearing on how we view morality. As Dostoyevsky so famously put it, "Without God, everything is permitted."
At first glance, this statement may not make sense. Everything is permitted? Can't there be a morality without an infinite God?
Perhaps some of the confusion is due to a murky definition of morality we owe to moral relativism. Moral relativism maintains that there is no objective standard of right and wrong existing separate and independent from humanity. The creation of moral principles stems only from within a person, not as a distinct, detached reality. Each person is the source and definer of his or her subjective ethical code, and each has equal power and authority to define morality the way he or she sees fit.
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| Random acts of cruelty may not be your cup of tea, but who says your standards are for everyone? | |
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The consequences of moral relativism are far-reaching. Since all moral issues are subjective, right and wrong are reduced to matters of opinion and personal taste. Without a binding, objective standard of morality that sticks whether one likes it or not, a person can do whatever he feels like by choosing to label any behavior he personally enjoys as "good." Adultery, embezzlement, and random acts of cruelty may not be your cup of tea -- but why should that stop someone from taking pleasure in them if that is what they enjoy.
Is having an intimate relationship with a 12-year-old objectively wrong just because you don't like it?
Perhaps murder makes a serial killer feel powerful and alive. A moral relativist can say he finds murder disgusting, but that does not make it wrong -- only distasteful. Hannibal, the Cannibal, is entitled to his own preferences even if they are unusual and repugnant to most.
Popularity has nothing to do with determining absolute morality; it just makes it commonplace, like the color navy.
"But this killer is hurting others!" True. But in a world where everything is subjective, hurting an innocent person is merely distasteful to some, like eating chocolate ice cream with lasagna. Just because we may not like it doesn't make it evil. Evil? By whose standard? No one's subjective opinion is more authoritative than another's. INCONSISTENT VALUES
Although many people may profess to subscribe to moral relativism, it is very rare to find a consistent moral relativist. Just about everyone believes in some absolute truths. That absolute truth may only be that it is wrong to hurt others, or that there are no absolutes. The point is that just about everyone is convinced that there is some form of absolute truth, whatever that truth may be. Most of us, it seems, are not moral relativists.
Bertrand Russell wrote:
I cannot see how to refute the arguments for the subjectivity of ethical values but I find myself incapable of believing that all that is wrong with wanton cruelty is that I don't like it.
Not too many of us believe that killing an innocent person is just a matter of taste that can change according to whim. Most of us think it is an act that is intrinsically wrong, regardless of what anyone thinks. According to this view, the standard of morality is an unchangeable reality that transcends humanity, not subject to our approval. THE INFINITE SOURCE
An absolute standard of morality can only stem from an infinite source. Why is that?
When we describe murder as being immoral, we do not mean it is wrong just for now, with the possibility of it becoming "right" some time in the future. Absolute means unchangeable, not unchanging.
What's the difference?
My dislike for olives is unchanging. I'll never start liking them. That doesn't mean it is impossible for my taste to change, even though it's highly unlikely. Since it could change, it is not absolute. It is changeable.
The term "absolute" means without the ability to change. It is utterly permanent, unchangeable.
Think of something absolute. Take for example an icon of permanence and stability -- the Rock of Gibraltar. "Get a piece of the rock" -- it lasts forever!
But does it really? Is it absolute?
No. It is undergoing change every second. It is getting older, it is eroding.
The nature of absolute is a bit tricky to grasp because we find ourselves running into the same problem of our finite selves attempting to perceive the infinite, a topic we have discussed in a previous article in this series. Everything that exists within time undergoes change. That's what time is -- a measurement of change. In Hebrew, shanah means "year," sharing the same root shinah, "change."
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| If everything in the finite universe is undergoing change, where can we find the quality of absolute? | |
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If everything in the finite universe is undergoing change -- since it exists within time -- where can we find the quality of absolute?
Its source cannot be in time, which is constantly undergoing change. It must be beyond time, in the infinite dimension. Only God, the infinite being that exists beyond time, is absolute and unchangeable.
'I am God, I do not change.' (Malachi 3:6)
Therefore an absolute standard of morality can exist only if it stems from an infinite dimension -- a realm that is eternal, beyond time, with no beginning and no end. THE DEATH OF EDUCATION
In addition to the demise of morality, moral relativism inevitably leads to the death of education and genuine open-mindedness. The thirst for real learning comes from the recognition that the truth is out there waiting to be discovered -- and I am all the more impoverished with its absence.
Professor Alan Bloom writes in his book "The Closing of the American Mind,"
It is the rarest of occurrences to find a youngster who has been infused by this [liberal arts] education with a longing to know all about China or the Romans or the Jews.
All to the contrary. There is an indifference to such things, for relativism has extinguished the real motive of education, the search for the good life...
...out there in the rest of the world is a drab diversity that teaches only that values are relative, whereas here we can create all the life-styles we want. Our openness means we do not need others. Thus what is advertised as a great opening is a great closing. No longer is there a hope that there are great wise men in other places and times who can reveal the truth about life...
If everything is relative, then it makes no difference what anyone thinks. Ideas no longer matter. With no absolute standard of right and wrong or truth and falsehood, the pursuit of wisdom becomes nonsensical. What are we searching for? If no idea is more valid than another, there is no purpose in re-evaluating one's belief system and being open to exploring new concepts -- since there is no possibility of ever being wrong.
A common argument often heard for supporting relativism is that in the world at large we see a plethora of differing positions on a wide range of moral issues. Try to find one issue all cultures universally agree to!
Professor Bloom addresses this contention:
History and the study of cultures do not teach or prove that values or cultures are relative ... the fact that there have been different opinions about good and bad in different times and places in no way proves that none is true or superior to others. To say that it does so prove is as absurd as to say that the diversity of points of view expressed in a college bull session proves there is no truth ... the natural reaction is to try to resolve the difference, to examine the claims and reasons for each opinion.
Only the unhistorical and inhuman belief that opinions are held for no reason would prevent the undertaking of such an exciting activity. THE NATURE OF DEBATE
The plethora of disagreements demonstrates exactly the opposite point. If everything is relative, what on earth are we arguing about?
Imagine walking down the street and you hear a ferocious argument taking place behind a door. People are yelling at each other in a fit of rage. You ask a bystander what the commotion is all about. He tells you this is a Ben & Jerry's ice cream store and they're fighting over what is the best flavor of ice cream.
Impossible.
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| Heated debates occur only because we believe there are right and wrong positions. | |
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Real debates and disagreements occur only because we believe there are right and wrong positions, not mere preferences of flavors. Think of a time you experienced moral outrage. The force behind that anger is the conviction that your position is the correct one. Matters of preference, like music and interior design, do not provoke moral outrage.
What provokes our moral outrage? Injustice? Cruelty? Oppression? There is the sense that an absolute standard of morality is being violated, an objective standard that transcends humanity, that stems from an infinite and absolute Being.
There are many things you haven't seen. Lack of personal experience has no bearing on reality. Arguments from incredulity are, as always, fallacious.
Absolute nonesense............!!
New Gods have come and gone over the past 10,000 years as any historical study for the period will affirm....a mere drop in the time bucket of time since man began walking upright.
On the contrary to this statement, for the past 6,000 years, the argument over which God is the one true God has usually ended civility and been the cause of much inhumanity where any horror has been permitted and encouraged.
Have a nice day.
You would think also, that Joshua (being one who regularly communed with God) would not condone murder, or permit himself to be part of murder. It was a direct commandment of God after all.
And yet if we are to believe the Old Testament, Joshua brutally murdered all the inhabitants (man, woman, and child) of several vanquished cities... at the direct command of God.
Funny thing that.
You cannot be an atheist and a moral absoulutist. Read the article at the Mises Institute. Heck, read any basic text on moral philosophy.
Moral guidance comes from Natural Law--the Divine Order of God--and Revelation.
and I listened to so much of this . . . demagoguery (( link )) - - -
that now, with my democratic views, I can no longer stand it,'' Itar-Tass news agency
Hi everyone . . .
I am f.Christian - - -
a falling down recovering evolutionist // liberal // globalist - - -
not any more since . . . FR saved me (( link )) === now I hate the stuff // lies ! !
Yes, in fact I can.
(and am)
The fact that you cannot comprehend the notion, has no bearing on it's truth.
But where does your reason come from? Without moral guidance, we would be a Lord of The Flies society.
BTW, glad to see you are back.
You still haven't explained, OWK, where your moral certitude comes from. Darwin? The lungfish? Who? What?
I'm assuming you mean the one quoted below.
Hence each man’s values may only be advanced by evaluating the world, forming rational conclusions, and acting for himself.
Or rephrased, Each man's morals are imposed only by his own goals.
The free-will choice to act in accordance with one’s own values is recognized by other more traditional names, the most recognizable of which is “the pursuit of happiness”.
In order to pursue the rational advancement of their values, individuals must be free to act in accordance with the dictates of their own will. In recognition of the fact that the will of individuals may conflict in advancement of their values,
So I must be free to advance my own goals and pursue my own happiness.
a rational restrictive boundary is created at the intersection of competing wills. This boundary reconciles the potential for conflict, by defining as a right, any action in accordance with the dictates of the will of the individual actor, which does not infringe upon the ability of other individuals to do likewise.
And here is where you lose it. Who gives a flying f#$% what anyone else wants to do as long as I am free to pursue my own happiness
. Without an externally supplied code of moral behavior all ethics degrades into "he who has the biggest gun wins". It doesn't matter if I infringe another's rights because in my moral code he has no rights. (the fact that he feels exactly the same is irrelevant).
Morals are always implemented through force or implied force. Fear of punishment keeps our evil natures in line, whether that punishment is temporal or spiritual. Anticipation of reward spurs the vast majority of good works. (I phrase it this way as there may be an infinitesmally small portion of real altrusim out there, but I doubt it). Morals only exist because God exists. Without God there is no moral code. (other than every man for himself)
Circular reasoning. Obviously someone who fully believes in Catholic doctrine will act in accordance with it. But such a person is free to alter his beliefs at any time. For example, I've heard rumors that a few Catholics use birth control.
That's strange. The four noble truths and the eightfold path mention nothing of any god, yet they contain plenty of moral guidance.
What a coinky-dink.
Astounding.
One may not be moral, unless beaten into submission.
In the 20th Century, atheism and neo-paganism killed around 180 million persons, excluding abortions, which would easily double that number.
Atheism kills like no other.
"One death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic."
---Joseph Stalin.
Do people have a right to own their own personal nuclear weapon?
Mohammed Atta?
Izzat you?
Ummm... Most atheists I know are moral absolutists in the strongest sense. Somewhere along the way someone in the non-atheist camp concocted the idea that atheists were moral relativists (perhaps from an outlier example), but any real interaction with them makes it very hard to construe them as this. In my experience, they are statistically more prone to being moral absolutists than self-labeled Christians, for whatever that's worth. You got your idiots in both camps, but most of the atheist position is premised on moral absolutism, so you would pretty much expect to find it there whether you agree with them or not.
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