MysticKnight’s line of reasoning sounds both reasonable and compelling. According to most atheists questions of morality are adjudicated by power relations. Prior to their revolution, the American Founders struggled with this very question. In a monarchy the authority of the law resides in the king. The king is the power that defines and enforces the law. The king also bestows rights upon his subjects by using his power to set the permissible boundaries of his subject’s liberty. Thus in the absence of the king’s power where does the law get its authority? The Founders had to ground human rights and law in a higher authority than any one person or human institution: the Creator.
What if nature itself serves as the creator? Grounding notions of right and wrong in nature provides one possible source for an atheistic morality. Some present the case that evolutionary pressure forces human society to adopt norms of behavior that ensure our survival as a species. But that line of reasoning also returns to “might makes right.”
In order to judge some action or behavior intrinsically right or wrong it must be compared with some standard deemed to be valid. To determine if something is good or true, then there must be some perception, however limited, of what is good-in-itself and what is true-in-i tself. That is why theists, like me, believe in a metaphysical source for the Good and the Truth, regardless of the particular doctrines of our respective faiths.
What if nature itself serves as the creator? Grounding notions of right and wrong in nature provides one possible source for an atheistic morality. Some present the case that evolutionary pressure forces human society to adopt norms of behavior that ensure our survival as a species. But that line of reasoning also returns to “might makes right.”
In order to judge some action or behavior intrinsically right or wrong it must be compared with some standard deemed to be valid. To determine if something is good or true, then there must be some perception, however limited, of what is good-in-itself and what is true-in-i tself. That is why theists, like me, believe in a metaphysical source for the Good and the Truth, regardless of the particular doctrines of our respective faiths.
