Every human culture known to man has had a moral law. We find it in the records of past cultures as well as in all present societies. These laws protect life; they govern marriage and family relationships, condemn stealing, and encourage doing good to others. Accompanying these laws, however, are people who resist the imposition of morality on their behavior. When a significant number of people gain enough power or support for their position, a significant aberration can occur, as it did in Hitler’s Germany or in the accepted practice of abortion in many countries today.
How do we explain a moral code that is so consistently present in all societies? How do we account for the innate sense of right and wrong most humans admit they feel? If we say moral intuition is a process of blind chance, then morality is a random trick of nature to get us to obey. An objective, universal, and constant standard of morality among world cultures points to the existence of a personal and moral God.
Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky said that without God we lose an objective basis by which to make moral judgments. That without a higher law above humanity, who gets to decide moral truth? True morality stems from the character and nature of God and is binding on his creation. Without God, “good” becomes a relative term that is always changing.
Question: How can you respond to the argument that there can be a standard of good/evil without God?
Question: If you and I can’t agree on what is “truth,” shall we decide with the toss of a dice?
Content adapted from Josh and Sean McDowell’s book, 77 FAQs about God and the Bible.