…for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists…

Hebrews 11:6

Do you believe that God exists?  If yes, why is that so?  Do you believe in God only because your parents believed in God and raised you to do the same?  Do you believe in God because most of your friends go to church and say they believe in God?  If an atheist were to ask you to give thought-out reasons for why you believe God exists, would you be able to answer him?

Two posts ago, I presented evidence for God’s existence from intelligent design.  Now I’d like to present another piece of evidence that points to God’s existence: morality. 

Obviously, some things are good while other things are bad.  Some actions are right while others are wrong.  Parents might smile when Elsa sings “No right, no wrong, no rules for me,” on Disney’s Frozen, but if we met someone in real life who actually promoted that philosophy, we would think them insane or at best extremely immature.  Ask them if it would be okay to steal from them, rape them or their loved ones, or take their life and see how long they hold to that “anything goes” philosophy.  Even the most unethical among us cries out for justice whenever another immoral person hurts them in some way.  So right and wrong exist.  Granted, there is not universal agreement as to what constitutes right and wrong, but most of us agree the line between good and bad exists. 

My question is this: who or what drew that line? 

Let’s hypothesize that God does not exist, Darwin was right, and we all evolved from monkeys.  Did we get morality from the monkeys?  There’s no evidence for that.  Animals kill and steal with impunity, with no signs of remorse even when they kill their own children as they so often do.  However, human beings with few exceptions do feel remorse when we kill, steal, and do other things which violate our moral standards, and we feel the need to punish those who violate our code.  We even feel the need to discuss these matters, as is happening in this column.  Do we observe any monkey telling another monkey that they need to discuss morality?  Obviously not. 

So, did we evolve to become moral?  That can’t be, because the whole reason behind evolution is “survival of the fittest.”  Macro-evolution is said to occur primarily to preserve a species from extinction, and we supposedly evolved from animals.  So why do we see living, breathing, thriving, completely immoral animals all around us every day?  If we evolved to become moral in order to survive, why are they still surviving?

Evolutionist George Simpson admitted, “…morals arise only in man.”  So, did we come up with morality ourselves?  Picture two cavemen sitting next to the unconscious cavewoman they just struck unconscious and raped in order to satisfy their primitive, animalistic urges.  Suddenly one of them says to the other, “You know, we just did something bad.  I think from now on we ask the woman for her permission first.  In fact, we should fall in love with a woman, she should fall in love with us, and we should make a life-long monogamous commitment to each other before anything sexual happens.  Let’s call this…marriage.  Oh, and violent behavior towards anyone is also a no-no from now on.  Agreed?”

Why would the caveman have come up with these moralistic standards in the first place?  He’s not doing himself any favors by putting these limitations on himself.  As things are, he could satisfy any urge he has by simply taking from others around him.  “In the mood”?  Just overpower the nearest female.  Is he hungry but doesn’t want to hunt and cook?  Just go to the nearest person weaker than him, kill them, and take their food.  Did someone make him angry?  Kill them and they won’t make him angry anymore.  Right now, before he puts all these moralistic rules in place, he’s living a completely self-centered, hedonistic, “anything goes” kind of life.  He’s the king of his world.  So why would he come up with rules of right and wrong that would require of him discipline, sacrifice, and putting others before himself?

Morality exists, but without God how does one explain it?  Evolution can’t explain it, nor can the notion that we are influenced by the animals.  It’s illogical to suppose that we ourselves came up with it.  So what’s left?

God.  He exists.