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Ashley Romrell
Gregory Spendlove
PHIL – 1120-006
March 12th, 2013
Summary Paper
In William Lane Craig’s article titled “The Indispensability of Theological Mete-Ethical
Foundations for Morality” Craig argues whether or not there can be good without God? He
argues that there can only be security in objective moral values, moral duties and moral
accountability if there is a God that exists. Otherwise, morality is not binding. Objective moral
values mean that there is a difference between right and wrong. First, when we look at a theistic
view, which is to say the view in which God or a deity exist, we can declare that objective moral
values are rooted in God. Craig states that, “God’s own holy and perfectly good nature supplies
the absolute standard against which all actions and decisions are measured.” He talks about the
principle and moral duty that God (Jesus Christ) placed to humanity that thou shalt love the
Lord, God with all your strength and soul and with all your heart and all your mind. Second is to
love your neighbor as thyself. This order of God gives us a basis and foundation of what love,
self-sacrifice, equality and righteousness. (Craig) Secondly, not only does the theistic view
believe in a right or wrong, but a moral accountability for one’s wrong actions and thus an
exoneration for righteousness. What Craig says about accountability is that, “There is nothing so
likely to strengthen the moral life as the beliefs that one will be held accountable for one’s
actions and that one’s choices do make a difference in bringing about the good.” (Craig)
Craig looks at the nature of morality and the obligation towards morality. He asks what
makes us certain that an action is either right or wrong? Are there such things as moral duties?
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And if there are, who enforces them? If God does not exist, then it is difficult to make sense of
morality and right and wrong. If anyone thinks that there are objective moral values/right and
wrong one must logically conclude that there is a God that is the writer of what is right and
wrong and that God is the one who enforces the “law of right and wrong,” such as the wrongness
of rape, murder, child abuse. Those are obviously moral values and it was Michael Ruse who
stated that, “The man who says that it is morally acceptable to rape little children is just as
mistaken as the man who says, 2+2=5” (Ruse).
Now looking at the atheistic view, how can one give any evidence that there is such thing
as any foundation for moral values? Not only moral values, but the value of a human being
having any significance in the world? They believe in a Naturalistic world view which states
that we as human beings are no more than animal organisms, evolved into what we are today,
which are just another animal species. Without morality or objective values, there is nothing that
separates us as human beings to animals who have no sense of a moral code. Everything that we
do is determined by out five senses and out genetic makeup. With this, is becomes impossible to
say that war, crime and brutality is wrong. If there is no such thing as either then what is there
such thing as moral obligations in anything that we do? Michael Ruse, a philosopher of science
from the University of Guelph writes that, “Morality is a biological adaption no less than are
hards and feet and teeth… Morality is just an aid to survival and reproduction… and any deeper
meaning is illusory.” (Ruse, "Evolutionary Theory and Christian Ethics") Craig talks about if we
have this sense of no moral code, then such atrocities such as the Holocaust can be no more than
indifference. In the absence of God, no one can say that mass extermination wasn’t justified. To
the Nazi’s they thought that it was ethically justified. Historian, Stewart C. Easton writes,
“There is no objective reason why man should be moral, unless morality pays off in his social
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life or makes him feel good. There is no objective reason why man should do anything save for
the pleasure if affords him.” (Easton) So we’re supposed to think that life is too short to do
anything outside of our own self-interest. If there is no accountability for wrong actions then
moral choices are insignificant because there are no consequences for a wrong action.
Atheism can also be the source of cruelty as was the testimony of Richard Wurmbrand, as
he reports, “There is no reward of good or the punishment of evil. There is no reason to be
human. The Communist torturers often said, ‘There is no God, no hereafter, no punishment for
evil. We can do what we wish.’ I have heard one torturer even say, ‘I thanks God, in whom I
don’t believe, that I have lived to this hour when I can express all the evil in my heart.’ He
expressed in unbelievable brutality and torture inflected on prisoners.” (Wurmbrand)
In conclusion, if there is no God, then any sense of objective morality does not exist. If
there is no reasoning for morality, then there is no reasoning for accountability for our actions.
Craig states that, “Even if there were objective moral values and duties under naturalism, they
are irrelevant because there is no moral accountability.” (Craig) It was said that, “Contemporary
writers in ethics, who blithely discourse upon moral right and wrong and moral obligation
without any reference to religion, are really just weaving intellectual webs from thin air, which
mounts to saying that they discourse without meaning.” (Taylor) Meta-ethical foundations seem
absolutely necessary for morality to exist. So if there indeed no God then there is no way a
person can be considered a good person. And if they can say there is such thing as being a good
person then we can conclude that there is a God. Craig believes that the existence of God or a
Theistic view provides a sound foundations for morality.
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Works Cited
Craig, William Lane. "“The Indispensability of Theological Mete-Ethical Foundations for Morality”."
Foundations 5. 1997.
Easton, Stewart C. "The Western Heritage, 2d ed." New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1966. pg. 878.
Ruse, Michael. ""Evolutionary Theory and Christian Ethics"." Darwinian Paradigm. London: Routledge,
1989. pg. 262, 268-9.
Ruse, Michael. "Darwinism Defended." London:: Addison - Weasley, 1982. pg. 275.
Taylor, Richard. "Ethics, Faith, and Reason." Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Prentice-Hall, 1985. pg 2-3.
Wurmbrand, Richard. Tortured for Christ. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1967.