An Overflow of Morality

I've been talking about evil and suffering for the last couple of weeks and the apparent problems those things seem to present for the Christian worldview. Ironically, however, evil actually serves as a very strong argument for the existence of God for at least two reasons! Let me explain what I mean.

First, simply acknowledging the "problem of evil" means someone knows that some actions are better than others and some actions are simply evil. Let's use Mother Teresa and Hitler as two extreme examples. Who in their right minds would say that Hitler was a better person than Mother Teresa? Hopefully no one! While Mother Teresa was certainly not perfect, how is that we just seem to know that she was a better person than Hitler? We can't make such judgements without having a perfect standard to compare are case studies to. C.S. Lewis put it well, "The moment you say that one set of moral ideas can be better than another, you are, in fact, measuring them both by a standard, saying that one of them conforms to that standard more nearly than the other. But the standard that measures two things is something different from either. You are, in fact, comparing them both with some Real Morality, admitting that there is such a thing as a real Right, independent of what people think, and that some people’s ideas get nearer to that real Right than others. Or put it this way. If your moral ideas can be truer, and those of the Nazis less true, there must be something—some Real Morality—for them to be true about." But where does this "Real Morality" come from? That brings us to our second point.

If there is no moral law, then no one can say anything is really right or wrong, good or evil, etc. For example, we couldn't say the events of 9/11 were actually wrong. We could say we didn't like them or that we would prefer different events take place, but without an actual moral law, we couldn't say that what happened was really wrong. Yet it seems we have very good reasons to believe there is an actual moral law that people instinctively know. Across the globe, it's a commonality that murder is wrong, adultery is wrong, stealing is wrong, etc. Paul seemed to agree when he wrote in Rom. 2:14-15, "Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them." This may not be evident by our actions at all times, but it is evident by our reactions. Even the thief cries "Wrong!" when he's stolen from! But if there's an objective moral law that exists outside of us, then we can draw a pretty significant conclusion from that fact. The argument goes like this:
1) Every law has a lawgiver
2) There is an objective moral law
3) Therefore, there is an objective Moral Law Giver

Granted, we haven't provided a robust case for the Christian God at this point, but we have begun to lay a solid foundation. For we know this Moral Law Giver must be morally perfect and personal. The moral law flows from the very nature of God. He is perfectly loving, perfectly just, etc. He is also personal. We have no moral obligations to natural laws. Basketball players do not have a moral obligation to the law of gravity when they dunk a basketball. We only have moral obligations to other persons. Therefore, we've learned some important things about this Moral Law Giver in a short period of time.

While we may not always have emotionally satisfying answers to all the aspects of the problem of evil, it's important to keep the perceived problem in perspective. It was this fact that God used to help lead C.S. Lewis from atheism to Christianity. Lewis wrote, "[As an atheist] my argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?" He recognized the need for a perfect Moral Law Giver. When combined with other arguments, it becomes clear that this is, in fact, the very God of the Bible.

For His glory,
Adam Tucker