God, Morality, and Nature

Recently on an episode of The Rubin Report, Dave Rubin organized a thoughtful discussion between Dennis Prager and Micheal Shermer on the subject of God and morality. The two men discussed for over an hour whether or not morality is a product of God or inherent in human beings. They also touched upon other subjects such as the existence of God, secularism, and other religions. Needless to say, it was an interesting discussion that, despite its greatness, frustrated me because of the lack of understanding people still have about God. Atheists always seem to think that they know everything about the universe when they do not, and Believers seem to think that all evidence of God can only be found in religious doctrines when it can be found elsewhere. I want to offer a different approach to proving the existence of God that fuses reasoning from the Enlightenment, science, and religion itself.

Let’s begin with morality. It sounds pedantic, but morality must be defined and we must discover why some things are truly good and bad. The answer lies in natural rights such as the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. For example, murder is wrong not just because religious texts tell us it is the case, but because it is an individual’s obligation to respect another’s right to live. The same premise goes for theft; it is wrong because individuals have a right to property. This exact premise holds true for nearly every single natural right that exists. I guarantee you that for every immoral action that is taken against an individual, a natural rights violation has also taken place. Therefore, it can be concluded that morality by definition is behavior that acknowledges the rights of human beings. With this in mind, it makes perfect sense that murder and theft are wrong.

One question many still have is: Where do all of these natural rights originate from? This question was answered hundreds of years ago by philosopher John Locke, who asserted that all humans have God-given rights. Thus, it makes sense that God would create natural rights, and have humans acknowledge them with our morality being an extension of those rights. Ultimately, morality cannot be subjective because of natural rights. To those people who believe morality is subjective, I have just one question: Why is racism wrong? If morality is entirely subjective, then surely racism is no longer wrong–for any white supremacist can believe being black is a grave sin–and he is not wrong because morality is subjective, remember? Of course, racism is wrong and virtually every single culture and group of people on this planet live by the same universal truths.

Now let’s discuss nature. As I mentioned before, morality is governed by natural rights created by God. If natural rights were not created by God, where would they come from? While many atheists become exasperated by this question, it is one that bears repeating. Ironically, atheists who claim to be logical succumb to the massive logical fallacy that everything came from nothing. Even if they believe in the Big Bang Theory, they must realize that the force came from something. As a matter of fact, this was one of Isaac Newton’s laws of physics. Understanding the laws of science, all things preexisting in nature imply some kind of creator. All these things include natural rights, the natural laws of science, and even the natural movement of our cells. The complexity of the laws that govern our universe could have only been created by a being infinitely more intelligent than humankind.

Where does this leave us? It can now be reasonably assumed that we have a God who created everything in our universe who continues to influence people today. It is also worth mentioning that the acknowledgement of God’s divine providence is what created the United States of America. Every Founding Father at least believed in a Creator who endowed us rights, and they made this country to acknowledge and safeguard those very rights. But right now in 2017, God is being forgotten. This is where Prager was absolutely correct when he made the claim that secularism doesn’t work. Once secularism takes root, a culture disavows God and begins disregarding the very rights that He created. This is why leftists are starting to take up violence as a form of political activism, which bubbled up in the attempted mass murder of Republican lawmakers at a Congressional baseball game. This is why leftists now support totalitarian socialism in increasing numbers. The once straight-and-narrow path of God is being replaced by secularism. As leftists become increasingly violent, it reminds me that humans have free will, but we would all be better off if we believed in God. Until we live in a world where people respect rights, respect nature, and respect God, we will not be able to shake off the evils of secularism and the destruction of natural rights that it entails.