Objective

Source of Moral Law

Without an objective source of morality, all so-called moral issues are nothing but personal preferences.
Hitler liked killing people, and Mother Teresa liked helping them. Unless there is a standard beyond Hitler
and Mother Teresa, then no one is really right or wrongit is just one persons opinion against that of
another.
There is, however, a real moral standard beyond human beings. C. S. Lewis wrote, Human beings, all over
the earth, have this curious idea that they ought to behave in a certain way, and cannot really get rid of it.
Secondly, that they do not in fact behave that way. They know the Law of Nature; they break it. These two
facts are the foundation of all clear thinking about ourselves and the universe we live in.1
Consider the following points clarified from Norman L. Geisler and Frank Tureks book having the title I
Dont Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist:2
1. There is an absolute standard of right and wrong that is written on the hearts of every human
being. People may deny it; they may suppress it; their actions may contradict it; but their reactions
reveal they know it. In other words, their reactions to personal unfair treatment reveal a
fundamental sense of right and wrong or Moral Law impressed on their hearts or conscience.
2. Relativism is false. Human beings do not determine right and wrong; we discover right and wrong.
If human beings determined right and wrong, then anyone would be right in asserting that rape,
murder, genocide, the Holocaust, baby torture, or any other heinous act is not really wrong. But we
know those acts are wrong intuitively through our consciences, which are manifestations of the
Moral Law.
3. This Moral Law must have a source higher than us because it is a prescription that is on the hearts
of all people. Since prescriptions always have prescribersthey do not arise from nothingthe
Moral Law Prescriber must exist.
4. This Moral Law is the Prescribers standard of rightness, and it helps us adjudicate between
different moral opinions people may have. Without the Prescribers standard, we are left with
human opinions. The Moral Law is the final standard by which everything is measured.
5. Although it is widely believed all morality is relative, core moral values are absolute, and they
transcend cultures. Confusion over this is often based on miscomprehension or misapplication of
moral absolutes, not on a real rejection of them. That is, moral values are absolute, even if our
comprehension of them or of the circumstances in which they should be applied is not absolute.
6. Atheists have no real basis for objective right and wrong. This does not mean that atheists are not
moral or do not comprehend right from wrong. On the contrary, atheists can and do comprehend
right from wrong because the Moral Law is written on their hearts just as on every other heart. But
while they may believe in an objective right and wrong, they have no way to justify such a belief.

In the end, atheism cannot justify why anything is morally right or wrong. It cannot guarantee human rights
or ultimate justice. To be an atheista consistent atheistyou have to believe there is nothing really wrong
with murder, rape, genocide, torture, or any other heinous act. As an atheist, you have to believe real moral
principles arose from nothing. Since such beliefs are clearly unreasonable, we do not have enough faith to be
atheists.

1 Lewis, C. S., Mere Christianity (New York: Macmillan, 1952), p. 21.
2 Geisler, Norman L, and Turek, Frank, I Dont Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2004), pp.

192-193.