Stealing From GodSample

Stealing Morality and Rights from God

Was the Holocaust really wrong? 

Not according to David Silverman, the president of the American Atheists. In our debate, he admitted that if there is no God, there is no objective standard by which to judge anything right or wrong. 

In other words, if there is no objectively Good, authoritative Lawgiver above and beyond human beings, then everything is a matter of opinion. You think murdering Jews, homosexuals and gypsies is wrong?  Without God, that’s just your opinion against Hitler’s opinion.  You think crucifying children is wrong?  That’s just your opinion against ISIS’s opinion. You think you have certain rights?  That’s just your opinion against an oppressive dictator’s opinion.    

Now, I am not saying that you have to believe in God to be a good person or that atheists like David Silverman are immoral people. I am also not saying that atheists don’t know morality or that you need the Bible to know basic right and wrong. Everyone knows basic right and wrong whether they believe in God or have the Bible or not. In fact, that’s exactly what the Bible teaches (see Romans 2:14-15).

What I am saying is that atheists can’t justify morality. They can act morally, judge morally and insist they have certain rights, but they have to steal an objective standard from God in order to do so. Whether it’s murder, rape, child sex trafficking, or any other heinous crime, atheists have no objective standard by which to judge any of it.  If your worldview requires you to believe that slaughtering six million innocent people is just a matter of opinion, then you have the wrong worldview. Whatever worldview is true, it’s not atheism. 

Instead, the existence of objective moral values is actual evidence that God exists. If there’s just one action that’s objectively right or wrong, then God exists. For example, if it’s objectively right to love one another, or if it’s objectively wrong to torture babies for fun, then God exists. In fact, it’s far more certain that murder, rape and child sex trafficking are wrong than any argument one could offer for atheism. 

As atheist Louise Antony admitted in her debate with William Lane Craig, “Any argument for moral skepticism will be based upon premises which are less obvious than the existence of objective moral values themselves.” Indeed, objective moral values are self-evident. Atheism is not. (See Chapter 4 of Stealing from God)