Right and wrong
Morality
Some things are really wrong, whatever anyone thinks. Where does that come from?
- EgyptDon't murder
- BabylonDon't lie
- ChinaHonor parents
- IndiaBe generous
- GreeceBe just
- NorseKeep faith
The same rules everywhere
C.S. Lewis collected moral teachings from ancient cultures across the world in The Abolition of Man (1943). They agree far more than they differ.
Two pictures
Without God, it is hard to say what makes anything right or wrong beyond human opinion.
“The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.
An atheist says it plainly
Dawkins is one of the best-known atheists alive. He admits that without God, good and evil don't really exist.
- If there is no God, there is no real right and wrong.
- But some things really are wrong, like torturing a child for fun.
- So there is a God.
The moral argument
Most people can't believe the second step is false when they think of a real cruelty. If it is true, the conclusion follows.
You know some things are really wrong. That knowledge makes the most sense if there is a moral lawgiver.
in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience testifying with them