14. The Moral Argument

We are more than half-way through our twenty proofs of God's existence.  If you are new to this series, or forgotten the purpose, I HIGHLY recommend you click here.  It is not based on Scripture, which a non-believer would not accept, but on logic and reason and goes far to show that belief in God is quite reasonable. 

1. Real moral obligation is a fact.  We are really, truly, objectively obligated to do good and avoid evil.
2. Either the atheistic view of reality is correct or the "religious" one.
3. But the atheistic one is incompatible with there being moral obligation.
4. Therefore the "religious" view of reality is correct (Handbook of Catholic Apologetics, pg. 77).

To clarify, the first statement means that humans are truly obligated to act a certain way and that we truly have certain duties.  This does not imply that these duties stem from simple feelings or belief in certain values, but true objective facts.  We are, in fact, morally obligated to do good and avoid evil.

But atheism does not support this.  Atheism teaches that we are products of blind chance- purposeless pieces of matter.  "Moral obligation can hardly be rooted in a material motion blind to purpose" (Handbook of Catholic Apologetics, pg. 78). 

If the obligation is simply rooted in human desire than there is no standard against which desires can be judged.  When two desires conflict, say a Jew in Nazi Germany and Hitler, than how can one desire be judged right and the other wrong, since every desire simply springs from the purposeless pieces of matter.  How can there be an obligation to feed the hungry if this is rooted in feelings?  I would be saying, "I desire the hungry to be fed."  But this simply indicates that I desire this to be so and that neither I nor anyone else is truly obligated to feed the hungry at all. 

The only compatible view with moral objectivism is the "one that sees real moral obligation as grounded in its Creator, that sees moral obligation as rooted int he fact that we have been created with a purpose and for an end" (Handbook of Catholic Apologetics, pg. 78).  In very general terms, this is what is referred to as the "religious view".

Note: This argument is based upon moral objectivism.  The next proof from human conscience, will prove objectivism.  "This argument assumes there are objective values; it aims to show that believing in them is incompatible with one picture of the world and quite compatible with another" (Handbook of Catholic Apologetics,  pgs. 78-79), mainly atheistic and religious pictures.  If objectivism is not true, this argument fails, yet rarely does one meet a consistent subjectivist.  If one does consciously believe in at least some moral absolutes (i.e. murder is wrong), this proof will help move them from the inconsistent atheistic point of view towards the religious one.