DOES GOD EXIST?

1. DOES GOD EXIST? • THE MORAL ARGUMENT • Objective realities • Objective (definition) • expressing or dealing with facts or conditions as perceived without distortion by personal feelings, prejudices, or interpretations, and perceptible by all observers • Subjective realities • Subjective (definition) • peculiar to a particular individual, modified or affected by personal views, experience, or background MORAL LAW?

2. AXIOLOGICAL • THE STUDY OF MORALITY AND VALUES IS CALLED AXIOLOGY. • AXIOS IS GREEK FOR WORTH OR VALUE. • The Moral or Axiological argument tries to show that moral values must be objective and universal to make sense. MORAL LAW?

3. RELATIVISM • The most widely held moral view in our culture is called Relativism. • Relativism holds that societies and/or individuals decide what is right and wrong. There is no objective moral truths, just behaviors created by people for people and they are subject to change. MORAL LAW?

4. 3 FORMS OF RELATIVISM • CULTURAL RELATIVISM • CONVENTIONALISM • ETHICAL SUBJECTIVISM MORAL LAW?

5. CULTURAL RELATIVISM • Cultural relativism is based on the observation that different cultures seem to have different values. • Example: Mexico, declares abortion to wrong and have passed laws to outlaw it, while the USA permit abortions and call it women's rights, and China actually requires abortion in some cases. MORAL LAW?

6. PROBLEMS WITH THIS VIEW. • Observing how cultures behave is just that, an observation and nothing more. • Morals are not a description of the way things are, they are a prescription of the way things ought to be. Just because something is a certain way does not mean it ought to be that way. MORAL LAW?

7. It also presupposes that different answers to a given question means that there is no right answer. • Just because Mexico, the USA, and China, disagree on the issue of abortion does not mean there is no right or wrong answer to this question. MORAL LAW?

8. A Cultural relativist will claim that there view on morality is the right view, but in claiming that, they are disproving there own view. By claiming that relativism (which claims there are no absolutes) is correct then they are being absolute. MORAL LAW?

9. CONVENTIONALISM • The view that each society decides what is right and wrong is called conventionalism. • In contrast to cultural relativism, which says there is no right and wrong, conventionalism says there is a right and wrong, but it varies from society to society. Majority rules and morality becomes simply what is legal. MORAL LAW?

10. WANTEDFOR CRIMINALLY IMMORAL ACTS MORAL LAW? ABE LINCOLN MAHATMA GHANDI MOTHER TERESA MARTIN LUTHER KING JESUS

11. ETHICAL SUBJECTIVISM • This form of relativism is the most wide spread. • In this view, individuals decide what is right and wrong for themselves. • Morality is nothing more than personal preference and opinion. • “what is true for you is true for you, and what is true for me is true for me”. Or “who are you to judge”. MORAL LAW?

12. You can never have a conversation about morality with someone who believes like this. You can never say anything is right or wrong. • The best one could say is: • “I choose not to do that because it is wrong for me”. MORAL LAW?

13. IS ALL TRUTH RELATIVE? • THE FATAL FLAW IN THIS VIEW IS IT IS SELF REFUTING. • IF THE ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION IS YES (AS THE RELATIVIST CLAIMS) THEN WHAT ARE WE TO DO WITH THAT STATEMENT ITSELF, SINCE IT WOULD BE UNIVERSALLY TRUE? MORAL LAW?

14. “IS TORTURING BABIES FOR FUN WRONG?” MORAL LAW?

15. WHAT MORAL SYSTEM IS RIGHT • One way to gauge a moral system is to look at the kind of heroes the system produces. • Take the objective moral stance of the Christianity view. The heroes are many. • Jesus Christ • Paul • The Reformers (that died at the stake) • The Puritans The list could go on and on, of people that have given there all for the sake of others and for the sake of standing for what is right. MORAL LAW?

16. What about ethical subjectivism? What kind of heroes best exemplifies there ideas? MORAL LAW? Charles Manson Ted Bundy Albert Fish Ed Gein

17. OBJECTIVE MORALITY • Morals are not opinion. They are not personal, private decisions, and they are not descriptions of behavior. They are prescriptions for behavior and motive that have the force of a command. They contain a since of obligation and oughtness that is universal, authoritative, and outweighs considerations of culture, time, and place. MORAL LAW?

18. SCIENCE?? • We cannot understand morals from science. • Science will not tell us what ought to happen, only what will probably happen under certain circumstances. MORAL LAW?

19. REASON?? • Morality cannot be derived from reason either. • Reason helps us recognize contradictions, but not the morality of the propositions. • Example: someone tells you, “I always lie”, you would reason that this is a paradoxical statement. If it were true, then it is false, and if it is false, it is true. But reason does not tell us anything about whether lying is right or wrong. MORAL LAW?

20. INTUITION?? • We know morality thru intuition. • (this intuition does not mean some vague suspicion, premonition, or nagging feeling. Moral intuition is a genuine form of knowledge.) • No investigation of facts or reasoning is required. This is what is demonstrated in the example of “torturing babies for fun is wrong”. MORAL LAW?

21. Demonstrations. • There are several ways to show that even people who claim to believe in relativism, actually believe in objective morality. • We have shown one way is with clear cut examples like the baby example. • Often conversations will present opportunities to make this point in a much more personal way. MORAL LAW?

22. Another demonstration would be to show that a relativist expects to be treated with respect and dignity. • You may ask whether there is any reason they should not verbally abuse, demean, and ridicule the relativist. The relativist would have to take the abuse or give no response to remain consistent. Yet the relativist will protest if they receive this kind of treatment, because there moral intuition cries out that it is wrong to treat people this way. MORAL LAW?

23. A 3rd way of exposing objectivism in a relativist is to discover their passion and relativize it. • Lets say your friend was a animal rights activist, you might tell them that you were trying to find a new shampoo and you just tested out a couple of different kinds by rubbing the shampoo in their dogs eyes to see if there was any adverse reactions. The relativist will object. By objecting he has demonstrated that moral laws are not personal opinions. MORAL LAW?

24. WHERE DOES MORALITY COME FROM? • Where do morals come from? • Why should we obey them? MORAL LAW?

25. CHARACTERISTICS OF MORALITY. • MORALITY CONSISTS OF PRESCRIPTIONS FOR BEHAVIOUR AND MOTIVES, NOT DESCRITIONS OF THE WORLD. • MORALITY CONSISTES OF COMMANDS, NOT SUGGESTIONS. • MORALITY SAYS, “DO THIS” AND “DON’T DO THAT,” NOT “IT WOULD BE NICE IF YOU DID THIS OR REFRAINED FROM DOING THAT.” MORAL LAW?

26. MORALITY IS UNIVERSAL IN SCOPE. MORALITY APPLIES TO ALL PEOPLE IN ALL PLACES AT ALL TIMES. • MORALITY IS OBJECTIVE. RIGHT AND WRONG EXIST OUTSIDE OF, AND REGARDLESS OF, OUR BELIEFS. • MORALITY IS AUTHORITATIVE. WE ARE OBLIGED TO OBEY ITS COMMANDS. MORAL LAW?

27. GUILT • Another indicator of where morals come from is found in what happens when we break the moral law. We feel guilty. • Sometimes we feel guilty to someone that we have done something wrong to, but sometimes the object of our guilt is not so obvious, like when we feel guilt for our thoughts. To whom do we feel guilty then? MORAL LAW?

28. Moral relativism turns out not to be a moral system at all but merely a set of opinions. These opinions carry no sense of authority and could change at anytime. It seems clear that though many people give lip service to this philosophy, no one lives it. MORAL LAW?

29. CONCLUSION • Objectivism is the only coherent view of morality. Only objectivism makes sense of our experience, of our perception of society and laws, our intuition and guilt. It is the only view of morality that can be lived consistently. And it points very strongly toward the existence of a transcendent, powerful, personal God. MORAL LAW?