subject: A Futile Argument: Attempting To Make God Necessary For Moral Values To Be Meaningful [print this page] A Futile Argument: Attempting To Make God Necessary For Moral Values To Be Meaningful
The more one tries to convince others that moral precepts have no value apart from God, the more he demeans the values themselves. This is problematic as it implies that values, such as compassion and forgiveness, are only meaningful if it is believed they originate with God. This is a complete MOCKERY of Him!How so? Well, it is essentially implying that the only reason said moral precepts are followed is to avoid angering God or perhaps just to curry favor with Him, aka "bribery".
But if I were God, which thankfully I am not, it would insult Me more that My children were following My "good" moral precepts only out of fear and perhaps in order to curry favor with Me as opposed to following them simply because they were deemed to be good in themselves!
Once again, it is as if one is saying, "OK God, I will be frank with you. I think your moral precepts are pretty meaningless but if they are the values you want me to live by, then I will do so (with at least a hint of reluctance). Now if one denies this, he is simply acknowledging that God is not necessary for moral precepts to have meaning.
If I had to harbor a guess, I would say the ultimate origin of morality stems from our ability to prosper when we cooperate with other human beings. Presumably it works out differently for different organisms, hence the apparent "moral depravity" in countless other species.
