The Origin of Good and Evil

Atheists and secularists would have us believe that good and evil are merely a matter of preference, practicality and popularity.  But beyond the fact that most people fail completely to see that such a system may put THEM in the crosshairs of someone else’s preference someday, it just doesn’t pass the test of logic and reason.

As this video from Prager University and Boston College Preofessor Peter Kreeft explains, “good” and “evil” are not merely superstitious substitutes for “I like” and “I don’t like.”

Regarding the evolutionist’s position that morality evolves, it is claimed that morality can change and become good (and if it can change for good, it can also change for bad). But if we are going to say that morality “evolves” to become “good,” then we fail to see that we are evaluating the evolution of morality according to a separate and external source of measurement.

For most of world history, the powerful have ruled over those with less power (often to the point of enslavement), and those in power have called that state “good” while those being ruled over usually called it “bad.”  Which was right? Further, if it was acceptable in the past, why could it not become acceptable again in the future? If it “evolved,” would whatever it evolved into automatically be good because it was new?

Reason can help us understand morality, but it is not the source of morality. Reason is limited, fallible, and subject to corrupted personal interest, and is therefore not always objective. Criminals reason that the crimes they want to commit are “good” and beneficial to them. And if you have a large group of political criminals, they may reason that it is “good” to subjugate all who are not part of their group, and if theirs is the dominant, established “morality” of the day, who is to say it is NOT good? In the early 20th Century, Germany was probably the most intellectual and scientifically advanced nation on earth; how did their “enlightened, evolved morality” work out in the 1930s and 1940s?

Likewise the conscience helps us identify morality, but it is subject to the same corrupted personal interest and self-centeredness that befalls reason. The conscience is not infallible, and is not the source of morality.

The utilitarian argument claims that moral right is determined by whatever creates the greatest happiness for the greatest number.  It would therefore follow that if 90% enslave the other 10% (or even 51% enslave the other 49%) and therefore receive the good of the free labor of that minority, then slavery would be morally right.

Conversely, the objective moral standard posits that there is an ABSOLUTE standard of right and wrong. These moral absolutes cannot be observed with science (just as the love you have for a parent or spouse or child cannot be observed with science, but is no less real because it can’t be measured scientifically), and it stands to reason therefore that if they are super-natural in character, they are super-natural in origin.

The existence of an objective moral standard proves the existence of a supernatural force beyond nature and humanity.

As a set of blueprints suggests a designer, so a set of moral laws suggests a moral law giver.

Whenever you appeal to morality, you are appealing to God, even if you don’t know it, and even if you are an atheist.

This article is printed with the permission of the author(s). Opinions expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the article’s author(s), or of the person(s) or organization(s) quoted therein, and do not necessarily represent those of American Clarion or Dakota Voice LLC.

Comment Rules: Please confine comments to salient ones that add to the topic; Profanity is not allowed and will be deleted; Spam, copied statements and other material not comprised of the reader’s own opinion will be deleted.

Similar Posts:

• Thought for the Day: The Value of Morality
• Politicizing the Religious War
• The Ideology of the ‘Mainstream’ Media
• The Greater Good
• Moral, Natural and Universal Law

Bob Ellis has been the owner of media company Dakota Voice, LLC since 2005. He is a 10-year U.S. Air Force veteran, a political reporter and commentator for the past decade, and has been involved in numerous election and public policy campaigns for over 20 years. He was a founding member and board member of the Tea Party groups Citizens for Liberty and the South Dakota Tea Party Alliance. He lives in Rapid City, South Dakota with his wife and two children.

Bob Ellis

View all articles by Bob Ellis