The existentialist... thinks it very distressing that God does not exist, because all possibility of finding values in a heaven of ideas disappears along with Him; there can no longer be an a priori Good, since there is no infinite and perfect consciousness to think it. Nowhere is it written that the Good exists, that we must be honest, that we must not lie; because the fact is we are on a plane where there are only men. Dostoievsky said, If God didn’t exist, everything would be possible. That is the very starting point of existentialism. Indeed, everything is permissible if God does not exist, and as a result man is forlorn, because neither within him nor without does he find anything to cling to. He can’t start making excuses for himself. -Jean-Paul Sartre. Sartre saw what life without God was really like. He laid out that the consequences of forsaking belief in God ultimately remove all absolute moral values and duties. Man must now make up for himself the values and rules he is to live by. On this view, one can no long say that what the Nazis did to the Jews was evil; how the treatment of African Americans by whites was wrong; how men like Stalin or Mao have done anything wrong in leading a nation; or how all the mass genocides that have happened throughout history were evil at all. In the end, because there isnt really any right or wrong man can do whatever. The choice to harm a child for fun instead of loving one is no different than choosing to go to McDonalds instead of Burger King. Morality is just personal preference or social behavior displayed by human animals just like any other animal in the animal kingdom. Life without God is deeply grim and terrifying and Sartre spells it out nice. But, is this the intellectual price we are willing to pay by getting rid of God? Are humans really ready to say that the pedophile does nothing wrong when they harm a child? I think not and so I think it is clear that there are absolute moral truths that exist. Thinks like rape, murder, and child abuse arent just wrong theyre moral abominations. But, if there are moral absolutes that we all clearly apprehend to be true then it follows that we have good evidence for the existence of a God. If you are an unbeliever this evening I ask you to think deeply about how life is and see if you can live consistently with saying that everything is really permissible. I dont think you will be able to. Youll want to affirm things that harming the innocent is bad or stealing peoples cars is wrong but you wont have any justification for this if you dont believe in God. Youll just be weaving moral webs out of thin air. So, if you think there are moral absolutes then you must also therefore follow your logic where it leads and I do think it will lead to God as this argument shows if there are indeed moral absolutes (and what could be more obvious?): 1. If God does not exist, then objective moral values and duties do not exist. 2. Objective moral values and duties do exist. Therefore, God exists.
Posted on: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 04:01:10 +0000
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