Saturday, March 15, 2014

ATHEISM AND MORALITY AT CROSS ROADS

ATHEISM AND MORALITY A GREAT CONTRADICTION
The Moral Argument in Theism  1.  Real moral obligation is a fact and  we are really, truly, objectively obligated to do good and avoid evil. 2.  Either the atheistic view of reality is correct or the “Godly” one. 3.  But the atheistic one is incompatible with there being moral obligation. 4.  Therefore the “theistic ” view of reality is correct.
  The first premise posits that human beings really are obligated; that our duties arise from the way things really are, and not simply from our desires or subjective dispositions. It is claiming, in other words, that moral values are obligations themselves –and not merely the belief in moral values – are objective facts.   Now given the fact that of moral obligation, a question naturally arises. Does the picture of the world view presented by atheism accord with this fact? It does not. Atheists hold the view that we are the chance products of the motion of matter: a motion which is purposeless , meaningless and blind to every human striving. If that is the case this question arises: Given this picture, in what exactly is the moral good rooted? Moral obligation can hardly be rooted in a material motion blind to purpose.   Suppose we say it is rooted in nothing deeper than human willing and desire. In that case, we have no moral standard against which human desires can be judged. For every desire will spring from the same ultimate source – purposeless, pitiless and meaningless matter. And what becomes of obligation? According to this view, if I say there is an obligation to clothe the naked, I would be stating a fact about my wants and desires and nothing else. I would be saying that I want the naked to be clothed, and that I choose to act on the desire. But this amounts to an admission that neither I nor anyone else is really obliged to clothe the naked – that, in fact, no one has any real obligation at all. Therefore the atheistic view of reality is not compatible with there being genuine moral obligation.   What view is compatible? One that sees real moral obligation as grounded in its Creator; that sees moral obligation as rooted in that fact that we have been created with a purpose and for an end. We may call this view, with deliberate generality, “the theistic view.” But however general the view, reflection on the fact of moral obligation does seem to confirm it.
Psalm 53.1 Bible.  Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; not one of them does good!