Morality Apart from God Essay

Submitted By hwong
Words: 3055
Pages: 13
Open Document
Cotton 1

Morality Apart From God: Is It Possible?
Ray Cotton
Ray Cotton is the former finance director and treasurer of Probe Ministries. He received a B.S. in business administration/management science from the University of Northern Colorado, a certificate in Christian studies from the Center for Advanced Biblical Studies, and an M.A. in interdisciplinary studies at the University of Texas at
Dallas. He now serves in a ministry to international students.

Recently, I became aware of a professor at one of the local colleges whose goal is to convince his students that you can have a system of ethics without a belief in God. Now I agree with him that holding his position is theoretically possible, but I said to him that such an ethical system is one built on sand. It would not stand the test of time nor the waves of adversity.
The U.S.S.R. tried to build an empire on godless atheism, and it failed miserably. Today in Russia we still see the results of the ethics of atheism. You would think that the Russians, having suffered so much under a totalitarian regime, would strive to do the right thing in appreciation for their new freedoms. Many have, but
Russia today is torn apart by crime, greed, lawlessness, and immorality. Why? Was it merely too much freedom too soon, or are they still reaping the rewards of the ethics of atheism?
Many people today believe that God is, at best, unnecessary, and at worst, an intolerant task master. They say they don't need God to live right, and they can set their own rules for life. We live in a world obsessed with personal values. What people do depends on their personal values, but since everyone's values are different, there seems to be no standard by which we must all live. The very idea of basing our morality upon our values means that we have bought into the idea of a system of relativistic ethics. Personal values have replaced values of virtue as the foundation for ethical thought. Virtues speak of some objective realities, but personal values speak only about subjective decisions of our will.
Basing ethical decisions on personal values is problematic. For example, is something good because we love it, or do we love it because it is good? German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche would tell us that something is good because we love it. According to Nietzsche, man himself is the universal and absolute reference point for all of life. "God is dead," he declared, believing this release from the demands of any metaphysical reality was an opportunity to develop his own system of ethics based on self cultivation.
Today the world is continuing to build an ethical system based on tolerance and enlightenment apart from
God. Men have tried many ways to teach this new godless form of morality. A decade ago we constantly heard the term, "values clarification." It was a national effort to allow even children to set their own standards of behavior. It was a disaster as it justified almost any kind of behavior. Educators may not loosely throw around the term, "values clarification," as they once did, but many still try to teach a system of ethics based on man's own values. These are values which are rooted in the idea of desirable goods, i.e., that which we decide is important to us.
The use of the term "values" can have objective content,
Show More

Related Documents: Morality Apart from God Essay

Essay on Philosophy: Morality and God

relationship between God and morality. He explains and defends the idea that God is the basis of morality. While doing this, he also sides against an old objection raised by Plato in “Euthyphro”. Kretzmann also supports the idea that God is a perfect being who is absolutely simple in order to back up his original claim that God is in fact the basis of morality, which again, relies on the assumption that God is absolutely simple. He uses two simple views of the relationship between God and morality to accurately…

Words 973 - Pages 4

Essay about Morality Religion

law set to Gods will. An action is morally obligatory in virtue of the fact that God commands it while on the other hand an action is morally wrong in virtue of the fact that God prohibits it. Strong advocates of the Divine Command Theory believe that apart from God’s will there is no “true” morality. Socrates made a major argument against the divine command theory, in what we can just easily call, the “Euthyphro dilemma”. Socrates asked the simple question of whether “divine morality” is right…

Words 535 - Pages 3

Review Notes Phil102 L1L2 Essay

•Metaphysics- What is reality? Is the mind different from the body? Does god exist? Are humans free? •Epistemology-What does it mean to know something? Are we justified in believing that things are as we perceive them? What makes a statement true? •Ethics-What makes an action right, or a person good? Is morality objective or subjective? Is it ever acceptable to lie? Is euthanasia moral? •Logic-What does it mean for some statements to follow from others? What structure makes an argument valid?…

Words 480 - Pages 2

Notes On World Religions

World Religions Handout 1 – Religious concepts and terms Key terms and concept Sacred- something Set apart for worship of a deity or as worthy of worship. Profane-Nonreligious. Outside the sphere of religion. Contemptuous of religion. Myth-A story dealing with supernatural beings that represents the worldview of a people. (Adam & eve) Epic-A narrative poem celebrating the acts of a traditional hero. (Job) Scriptures-Sacred writings. A sacred scroll or book. (Bible, Coran, Tora) Rituals-Prescribed…

Words 966 - Pages 4

Essay about Religious vs Science

Kristine Le PHI 208 Dr. Kate Andrew March 01, 2013 Religion or Science Philosopher and historian David Hume was considered as a deist, aside from being an empiricist and someone who usually supported the theory of evolution. Even if Hume believed that God created the universe, he did not think that God was further involved in anything beyond creation. This was especially true in how he formulated his moral theory wherein he claimed that man was inherently inclined to do…

Words 4426 - Pages 18

Hindu: Hinduism and Hinduism Traditions Essay

founder for it. Hindus worship god by calling him Jesus, Allah, Brahman, or Buddha. According to www.religioustollerance.com/hinduism.htm they stated, “Hinduism differs from Christianity and other monotheistic religions in that it does not have a single founder, a specific theological system, a single concept of deity, a holy text, a single system of morality, a central religious authority, and the concept of a prophet.”(David Levinson). In Hinduism there are many gods and goddess also known as a polytheistic…

Words 949 - Pages 4

World View Essay

made by God, our creator, “In the beginnings God created the heaven and earth” (Genesis 1:1 New International Version (NIV)). Many would believe that there was evolutionary process but believing in our god it is said, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27 NIV) I believe that God created man, Genesis 1:27, as stated above paragraph, teaches that God created man in his own image. We were set apart by God to rule…

Words 522 - Pages 3

The Proper Purpose of Education (St. Augustine) Essay

The Proper Purpose of Education Throughout Confessions the author, Saint Augustine, puts a strong emphasis on the value of education and where it can be derived from in order for the growth of the person. He delves further into the education he received from the time he was a young boy and beyond; his education would not have been made possible without his parents, Monica and Patrick, both of which had made several financial sacrifices in order to provide Augustine…

Words 1418 - Pages 6

compare and contrast the predominant cultural characteristics of the U.S. with those of the European Union Essay

travelled to the New World (America) and fleeing religious oppression of the Old World (Europe). The Pilgrims believe “they were carrying out God’s Will and, as a result, they would become a shining example for the rest of humanity” . This new land free from persecution, subjection,…

Words 899 - Pages 4

Lord of the Flies Essay

Final Draft0- The Allegory of Life William Golding’s Lord of the Flies repeatedly contrasts with the morality-driven views of the controversial philosopher Frederick Nietzsche. Golding’s allegorical novel tells the story of a group of young boys who remain stranded on an island and left to their own instincts. Golding and Nietzsche would argue the issues the boys face are based on the morality and nature of man. Ralph, the protagonist, is delegated power by the other boys, while Jack, the antagonist…

Words 1909 - Pages 8