Morality in a Material World?

Can we be good without God? Atheists say so, but are they right? Sort of, but not in the way they think. God is the absolute standard for what’s good. Without God and his Word, “right” and “wrong” are arbitrary and ever-changing.

Morality is a very difficult problem for the evolutionary worldview. Most evolutionists are as moral as everyone else and adhere to a moral code and believe in the concept of right and wrong. But evolutionists have no rational reason for this position. William Provine, evolutionist and biology professor at Cornell University, states in referring to the implications of Darwinism, “No ultimate foundations for ethics exist, no ultimate meaning in life exists, and free will is merely a human myth.”1 Thus, only creationists have a rational, logical, and consistent reason for morality.

Genesis not only justifies the existence of the moral code but explains people’s inability to fully live up to that same code. The Bible teaches that all people have in their nature a tendency to sin because they are descendants of Adam and Eve (Genesis 1–3) who committed the first sin (Romans 5:12; Galatians 5:17). Adam’s sin resulted in a curse under which all creation has been suffering the effects of since that time (Romans 8:22–23). Thus, a literal Genesis can account for why people are immoral in the first place as well as the “natural evils” we see in the world.

Even though most people do not acknowledge it, the morality and rules that most humans adhere to have their basis in the reality of the world created by God and explained in the Bible. God is the Creator of all things, and therefore, all things belong to him (Genesis 1:1; Psalm 24:1). Thus, God as the Creator has the right to define absolute standards of behavior.

The morality and rules that most humans adhere to have their basis in the reality of the world created by God and explained in the Bible.

Apart from the biblical understanding of creation, morality has no justification. Christian philosopher Dr. Greg Bahnsen noted that although unbelievers may classify actions as good or evil, they do not have an ultimate foundation for defining what is good and evil.2

In fact, many evolutionists are quite clear that evolution does not provide a basis for universal morality. Nobel laureate and evolutionist Steven Weinberg states, “I think that part of the historical mission of science has been to teach us that we are not the playthings of supernatural intervention, that we can make our own way in the universe, and that we have to find our own sense of morality.”3

A Christian worldview regarding Genesis as literal history is necessary for understanding (1) why there is a moral code, (2) why everyone knows about it, and (3) why no one can live up to it completely. This provides a rational, logical, and consistent foundation for morality that has led to modern laws that prohibit and punish immorality.

The worldview of atheism is built on materialism—the idea that only material things exist. Concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, are not material. After all, you can’t trip over morality!

So not only are right and wrong arbitrary in an atheistic worldview, but they also can’t even exist! By admitting that good exists with or without God these unbelievers are unwittingly appealing to God they claim they don’t believe in. Let us remember a phrase from Romans 3:4: “Let God be true though every one were a liar!”