Is Anything Right?Or Is Everything Right?

Historical records support the idea that all human beings from the dawn of time have lived by some kind of moral code. No matter the civilization, the members of the society subscribed to a set of rules by which their lives should be lived. There are similarities from set to set across the various civilizations. There are also some marked differences, but the fact remains that where we can find historical records of a people we find evidence of a sense of right and wrong.

The curious person would want to know where this concept of a moral code is coming from. One who believes in God would easily answer that the concept of a moral code comes from God. Note that this does not tie God to any particular moral code from all the possibilities. Rather, it is stating that since man is created in the likeness of God, and God is a moral being, man has an inherent need for a moral code.

An atheist would scoff at this suggestion and label it as "simplistic." At the same time he would have a difficult time coming up with an answer of his own. There is a reason for this difficulty. When God is removed from the picture, then plan, purpose, reason and such concepts are removed from the picture as well. Lacking all of that, a being, man, with no concept of his origin, indeed his randomly chaotic origin, who existed for no reason, no purpose and with no plan, could hardly have a sense of right and wrong.

Something I hope to keep at the forefront of everyone's mind, believer and atheist alike, is that without God life is abjectly nihilistic. If there is a God, a creator, then there is a plan, a purpose, a reason for man's existence. If there is no God, then none of those things exist. We are just here. There was no plan that got us here. There is no reason we're here. There's no purpose in our being here. Our life is meaningless when those things are missing from it. Like a 17 year cicada spending 17 yrs of life underground before crawling to the surface to be an adult for 4 weeks and then die, if there is no God we spend our lives in a fog of nothingness and then die becoming nothing, all for no purpose whatsoever.

An important inherent quality of this nihilism, this absence of God, is that there can be no universal moral code without God. The atheist will say, "I have a moral code and I have no connection to God at all." That is fine. You have accepted some set of "right and wrong" by which you wish to live your life. But that is all it is: a code for you to live your life. It is not a universal moral code, nor can there be one if there is no God. You may have yours, I may have mine. They may be identical. They may be quite different. Each individual in the world may have their own and they may all be different from each other. They most certainly would not all be the same.

Let's consider a school classroom as a closed system, meaning for the purpose of this example none of the issues that exist outside of the classroom have any effect on what goes on in the classroom. Left to themselves the children in the classroom may project their own individual ideas of right and wrong. A child in the classroom may rise up and proclaim his sense of right and wrong to be the standard by which everyone must live. A different child may proclaim that her sense of right and wrong is the one that must prevail. They are both children and have equal standing to make such a claim. Which one is right?

One child may rally a faction around them and "conquer" the class to proclaim that their moral code is the one that will hold sway. But that is not genuine moral authority. It is what we call "Might Makes Right" and has no credibility as a valid policy. (If it does, then Hitler was right to exterminate Jews and we should not shudder at the Holocaust.) They are both still children with equal standing to make their claim. Neither has the right nor the moral authority/ability to demand power over the other, Might Makes Right not withstanding.

With a teacher in the room the situation is totally different. The teacher is not a student, not on an equal footing with the students. The teacher has authority and power over the students. The teacher will determine what moral code will be enforced in her classroom, what is right, and what is wrong. The students, subservient to the teacher will have to abide by the precepts the teacher sets forth because the teacher is recognized by all to hold the levers of power in the classroom.

While it may not be perfect in every sense, the "teacher in the classroom" example serves to illustrate the concept of right and wrong in the world we live in. All of us inhabiting this world (capable of being involved in such a discussion - so, no animals) are people. No one is on a higher level than anyone else. No one is on a lower level than anyone else. Nobody has any authority to stand out and announce that the moral code he prefers is the one that everybody must follow, that it is in fact right and all others are wrong. The manner in which someone might establish the pre-eminence of their preferred moral code is to follow in the steps of Hitler. Conquer the world and enforce his idea of right and wrong on everyone else. But Might Makes Right is a false notion. No one has that right. It doesn't exist.

But that is without God in the picture. His presence changes everything. That is because God is not one of us. He is not a person on the same level, no higher, no lower than every other person in the world. God is clearly on a much higher level and He, and only He, can proclaim what is right and what is wrong.

Without God you follow your moral code and I follow my moral code and everyone follows their own moral code and you are right and I am right and everyone is right. Also, Hitler is right. The most vile reprobate is right because we are all on the same level and no one can "lord it over" another person to say the other person is wrong.

With God we must follow His moral code because He is on a higher level and has the authority and the power to "lord it over" us and tell us when we are right and when we are wrong. Only with God can there be a universal determination of what is right and what is wrong, and He is the one that makes that determination. I personally feel blessed and thankful that it is so.