EVIDENCE FOR GOD IN MORALITY

C.S. Lewis lived a good part of his life as an atheist before realizing that the reality of God was inescapable. He is a great thinker who has a knack for making some of the most complicated ideas simple and understandable. Here are a few thoughts from his book Mere Christianity.

Is there such a thing as a moral absolute? By this I mean are there things in life that are universally right or universally wrong regardless of what part of the world you live in and what religion you are? Some would say no because everyone does things differently and that's okay as long as what a person is doing works for them. For example, some people greet with a kiss and others a handshake. Who's to say there's right or wrong way to greet people? While I agree that this is true, I feel strongly that the same tolerance we give to cultural practices cannot be applied to morality. Think about the Nazi regime for a second. There is not a single person in all the world who could make a case that what the Nazis did in killing so many people was right; there was something universally wrong with their behavior. What was it?

If there is such a thing as a universal wrong, that means there must also be a universal right that made the wrong wrong. And so it seems that we have arrived at the possibility that there is some kind of moral law in place in our world in just the same way as there are natural laws like gravity and so on. As with all laws, you can usually know it's there the most when you try to resist against it. In the same way that g-forces are felt when riding a theme park roller coaster or an airplane because your body is resisting gravity, people can also feel when they are resisting the moral law. Some people would call this subtle awareness when you're about to do something wrong your conscience but for now we'll can it the moral law. Where did all this come from?

Some would say that the moral law came about just like every other thing, though evolution. People and animals alike have instincts that tell them when it is time to do certain things like eat, protect ones self or have sex and procreate in the springtime. A person does not have to think about these things or create this thought themselves, they just know. While it is possible that these instincts could have evolved over time, the moral law is in a league of its own. I say this because there are times in life such as when a person has just fallen into the water that a second onlooking person is forced to decide between two conflicting instincts. One instinct in this case tells the second person to jump in and help while the other instinct of self preservation tells them not to. It is the moral law that acts in situations such as these to guide and navigate us through our instincts. This makes the moral law more than just a primitive instinct and the likelihood of it evolving by chance highly improbable.

Let's pause this thought of the moral law for a second and turn our attention to the crazy idea of God. I'm not saying there is a God but I want to talk about things as if there was. If there was a God who created the world, wouldn't it be safe to say that we could learn about him from what he has made in the same way that a great deal can leaned about a painter from his paintings? To take this thought a step further, if an architect designs a house, you would not expect to find him as a physical part of the house as in a wall or light fixture, but you would expect to see evidence of the architect in the overall design of the house and how everything looked all together. I think it is the same way with God. If God did in fact design and create the world, we shouldn't expect to physically be able to touch and see him, but we should be able to see evidence of his influence on the world he has made.

And it seems we might have found such influence in the moral law. Could the moral law be God's way of acting on and influencing the world he created to work and operate in just the way he designed it? It makes sense doesn't it?

I would like to stop with C.S. Lewis' thoughts for now to mention one quick thought about God and spiritual things before I end. I think many people today are under the assumption that a belief in God is a blind leap of faith that some choose to make and others don't. Belief in God is not a choice by blind faith at all, rather it should be a logical decision of how to best make sense of the world after examining all the facts. We are very fond of tolerance today and have a "to each his own" mentality when it comes to issues of morality and spirituality. Tolerance is a good thing but tolerance in important issues such as these that allow us to avoid important issues that we don't want to deal with is dangerous. Before a person decides to live their life with little or no regard for God, I think they should examine the facts. Most people don't do this but I wish they would. I firmly believe that even though a person cannot make sense of everything God does, that belief in God should and does make sense.

Will you think sensibly about the world, about morality and look for evidence of God around you? If you do I think you'll find it. God did not create the world to hide himself from us so that he can't be found. God is actually very near to each of us if only we become willing turn around and examine things for how they really are.