Is there a God? I like to think so. As a matter of fact the majority of human beings on the planet take refuge in the thought that there is a God. But is there really a God; is there any reasonable proof of His existence? God by definition cannot be proven or disproven by the hard sciences. But is there other evidence for or against His existence. Are there other clues to whether or not there really is a God?
Philosophers have spent all of recorded history thinking about God and whether or not this “God” is a real thing. Because of this there are literally thousands of arguments for and against religion and more specifically there being or not being a God. I think the most persuasive of these theories is called the “Morality Argument.”
The basis of this thought is this that there in undeniable “Moral Law” which we all live by, abide by, and compare ourselves to. This “Law” tells us what is right and wrong. For example, I have confidence that everyone in this room would agree that if you and an elderly woman were to get on a bus to find that there is only one seat left you would feel a tug if only slightly somewhere deep down inside you to give the last seat to the person in need. I am not saying that you would actually act on that feeling and give up that last seat but that you would feel, deep down, a tug that it is really the right thing to do. This situation is a fact no matter how “good” or “bad” the person is somewhere deep down they will feel that voice, that tug, what we call a conscience.
Some people might want to say that the conscience that we have developed is only because we were raised in modern times and in our culture. However, I challenge that thought. I really believe that no matter where you are, who you are, or when you lived, you would still feel that tug, that voice, that ever-present conscience.
So far we have said that there is most defiantly a “Moral Law.” Most laws are descriptive laws, that is to say that they describe what happens under a certain set of circumstances. It is very important to note that the “Moral Law” is not descriptive law. The “Moral Law” does not say what we do. For example, we may know deep down in our conscience that it is right to give our seat to an elderly woman but that does not mean that we actually give up our seat. In this way the “Moral Law” does not describe our actions.
If there is a “Moral Law” and it isn’t a descriptive law then what is it? Conveniently enough, there is a word for such a law. It is called a prescriptive law, which is to say that it does not describe what will happen, but tells what should happen. If I drop a ball then it should fall to the ground, this is the prescriptive law of gravity. However just because the ball should fall doesn’t mean it will there is an infinite number of things that could happen to the ball on its way to the floor. But, according to the prescriptive law of gravity the ball should fall. You might ask “well if the moral law isn’t a descriptive law then why is it prescriptive, what makes it a law at all.” To prove the Moral Law is prescriptive we can go back to the last example. If you are on a bus and you see an elderly lady you feel you should give up your seat even though it may not be what happens. In this way the “Moral Law” is prescriptive.
Now, we have determined that there is indeed a “Moral Law” and it is not merely a law that observes and records what happens but is a law that actually tells what we should and should not do. How does this apply to the God subject? Well, if there is a Moral Law and it tells us what to do then who put it there? If there is a Moral Law then there must be a Moral Law Giver. One who wrote the law, somehow programmed this law into the subconscious of every human being on the planet and continues to this day to distribute this law and deliver rulings on our actions. In this way the very existence of the Moral Law argues for the existence of God. Without God there is no Moral Law, and there obviously is a moral law so there must be a God.
