IS CHRISTIANITY THE ONLY OBJECTIVE SOURCE OF MORALITY?

Is Christianity the Only Objective Source of Morality? Questions and concepts we will ponder:

The nature of worldviews The nature of presuppositions The nature of the preconditions of human experience

Internal critique of worldviews Naturalistic Materialism Agnosticism Islam Hinduism Buddhism Christian copies Christianity

The Question Before Us

What is a Worldview?

A worldview is a network or complex web of presuppositions whereby all experience is related and interpreted.

All of human experience and evidence is interpreted by a persons worldview and the various presuppositions which make it up.

There is no such thing as neutrality All people are biased and will interpret evidences in

correspondence with their ultimate faith commitment.

What is a “Presupposition”????

“To suppose or assume beforehand; take for granted in advance.”

Presuppositions are the most basic and foundational assumptions that exist in a persons worldview

Beliefs are like a spider-web and not a bowl of marbles

Ultimate Faith Commitment

An “Ultimate Faith Commitment” is at the center of a persons worldview

It is the ultimate, all-governing presupposition that the worldview is formulated around

1. Centrality of Christ

2. Allah

3. Materialism

4. Nirvana

Ultimate Faith Commitment

A persons worldview is going to include an ultimate faith commitment.

This is the center of the web of a worldview With spider webs, one can break certain strands of the

web, yet the web stays intact However, if one destroys the center of the web, the entire

web falls apart

Worldviews Are Complex Webs

ULTIMATE FAITH COMMITMENT

PRESUPPOSITIONS

Transcendental Reasoning

Transcendental reasoning seeks to discover what general conditions must be fulfilled for any particular instance of knowledge to be possible. It asks what view of man, mind, truth, language, and the world is necessarily presupposed by our conception of knowledge and our methods of pursuing it.

Transcendental Reasoning

To put it simply, what has to be true to make our experience understandable?

The things that explain our human experience are what is known as pre-conditions

What are the conditions that must be met to explain logic, moral absolutes and induction – also known as the uniformity of nature?

What is necessary to make sense out of what we experience or know

Transcendental

Kantianism . of, pertaining to, based upon, or concerned with a priori elements in experience, which condition human knowledge.

Today, we are going to ask the question of which worldviews can account for human experience

What worldviews can account for laws of logic, morality and the overall nature of experience

Internal Critique

“A rational worldview must provide the preconditions of intelligibility. These are conditions that must be accepted as true before we can know anything about the universe. The preconditions of intelligibility are things that most people take for granted.”

Lisle, Jason (2009-05-17). The Ultimate Proof of Creation (Kindle Locations 443-444). Master Books. Kindle Edition.

The Task Before Us

For a worldview to be true, it must not have inconsistencies with human experience

Moreover, it must be able to account for human experience by its justification of the preconditions of human experience

In short, it must be able to account for “universal,” “abstract” and “invariant” laws

1. Logic

2. Morality

Laws of Logic

Law of Identity: Something is the same as itself….a thing is what it is.

Law of Non-contradiction: Something cannot be A and not A at the same time and in the same sense

Law of Excluded Middle: It states that for any proposition, either that proposition is true, or its negation is.

Laws of Logic are….

Universal…they apply to everyone’s thinking all the time.

Abstract…they are not connected to or derived from the physical universe.

Invariant…they do not change due to time, circumstance or location.

The Argument ~ Laws of Logic

The laws of logic are universal standards of reasoning They are necessary for cogent thought They are not material in nature (no logic tree) They are laws (not subjective) They apply to everyone

Moral Absolutes

Moral Absolutes/Laws are universal, abstract and invariant laws of morality

They are not material in nature (they are immaterial) They are laws so they are not a product of the mind They are objective in nature They are transcendent in nature Murder, rape and abuse are just some examples of the

absoluteness of these laws

The Argument ~ Laws of Morality

The laws of morality are universal standards of morality They are necessary for proper conduct and action They are not material in nature (no morals tree) They are laws (not subjective) They apply to everyone Being objective in nature, they address the question of

“ought” Why “ought” I not kill my neighbor?

The Internal Critique

The Internal Critique ~ Atheistic Materialism

The Presuppositions of Atheistic Materialism “This material universe is what is really real. As Carl

Sagan, astrophysicist and popularizer of science puts it, "The cosmos is all that is or all that ever will be." The present scientific view of how the universe came into being, now taught in major universities worldwide, is that it all came into existence with a "big bang" some billions of years ago. The atheist would say this was initiated by some physical process as yet unknown.” ~ Timothy Leary: “God is the DNA Code”

Eight Basic Presuppositions of Materialism

1. Something came from nothing

2. Stability came from chaos (order came from disorder)

3. Inorganic matter developed into organic matter

4. Life came from non-life

5. Intelligence came from non-intelligence

6. Morality came from a-morality

7. Procreation came from a-sexual reproduction

8. No creator and all things happened by random chance (universe is impersonal)

OBJECTIVE MORALITY AND LOGICAL LAWS ARE NOT POSSIBLE IN THIS UNIVERSE There are no transcendent laws or lawgivers in this universe *All that exists is the concrete, material universe* Universe is impersonal and does not care Just bags of protoplasm Subjective in nature Cannot account for immaterial laws All basic presuppositions are against human experience and

unverifiable This worldview is inconsistent on its own grounds and cannot be

true

Cruel Logic

Agnosticism

“Agnosticism is a philosophy that views the truth claims that deal with the metaphysical realm—such as theology, the existence of God, and eternity—as unknown or unknowable because man is subjective. Agnostics claim it is either impossible to have absolute knowledge of God or, though it may be possible, it is rarely probable because each person has experiences that color their understanding.”

Hindson, Ed (2008-05-01). The Popular Encyclopedia of Apologetics (p. 17). Harvest House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Agnosticism

While there are various degrees of agnostic belief, there is nevertheless an understanding that in some sense, knowledge is not possible. For those who posit that God is unknowable, it also follows that there view of morality is subjective because of the unknowable yet necessary transcendent law-giver

For those who posit that knowledge is unknowable, how would they know that?

If no one can know for sure, how do they know that no one can know for sure?

This view is subjective and cannot account for the necessary preconditions of human experience.

Islam

Islam claims to present a moral code which is absolute and objective, but, is this true?

Can the Islamic worldview account for human experience?

Islam is a “Unitarian” religion (one god and one person) Human experience comes to us in universal and

particular form. The very foundation of Islam provides for the universal

aspect of experience, but not the particular.

Islam

Moreover, the Qur’an claims that Allah is “ultra-transcendent” via its doctrine of "tanzih" (or transcendence) - which says that no human language can positively describe Allah because he is allegedly "incomparable" (Surah 42:11) –

Hence, on an internal basis, this doctrine renders it logically impossible for the Qur’an to be what it claims to be, a positive revelation and description of Allah.

Hinduism ~ Basic Presuppositions

250,000 million God All is one There are no distinctions Wheel of life Prayers and yoga necessary to achieve Nirvana Goal of Nirvana All human experience is “Maya” or illusion Denial of the laws of logic

Buddhism Many forms are either atheistic or agnostic in nature Subject to the same pitfalls of the materialistic worldview Subjective in nature According to who? According to what standard? Objective “right”?

EIGHTFOLD NOBLE PATH

Right View

Right Intention

Right Speech

Right Action

Right Livelihood

Right Effort

Right Mindfulness

Right Concentration

Christian Copies Mormonism ~ Polytheistic No unity in the Godhead Cannot account for and is not structured to human

experience (universal experience) Inconsistent with Biblical teaching Jehovah’s Witnesses ~ Henotheistic No plurality in the Godhead Cannot account for particular experience Inconsistent with Biblical teaching

Christianity

Monotheistic in nature Trinitarian in nature Unity and plurality in the Godhead Answers the problem of the “one and the many” that all

other worldviews fail to answer Hence, it can account for human experience and

universal and particular nature of laws, numbers and so on…

Christianity

2

THE NUMBER 2 IS DEAD…

2

The One and the Many

No one has ever experience 2…just 2 What you have had experience with is the “numeral two” Meaning, you have had particular experience with two

dollars, two children, two dogs and so on.. But you have never experienced the abstract reality of

simply the number “2” Or, said another way, you have never experienced the

universal reality of the immaterial entity of “2”

The One and the Many Materialism, Agnosticism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and

Jehovah’s Witnesses can account for particular experience – but not universal

Mormonism can account for particular experience – but not universal

Christianity, however, can account for both the universal and particular aspects of experience because of the nature of the Godhead –

The Trinity defined

The Trinity Defined

Within the one being of God, there exists three co-equal, co-eternal and co-powerful persons, the Father, the Son (logos) and the Holy Spirit, who all possess the attributes of personhood, namely, intellect, emotion and will, with all of these persons sharing exhaustively in the singular essence of the Godhead.

The Trinity Defined

“The fact that God exists as a concrete self-sufficient being appears clearly in the doctrine of the Trinity. Here the God who is numerically and not merely specifically one when compared with any other form of being, now appears to have within Himself a distinction of specific and numerical existence. We speak of the essence of God in contrast to the three persons of the God-head. We speak of God as a person [meaning, a personal being]; yet we speak also of three persons in the God-head. As we say that each of the attributes of God is to be identified with the being of God, while yet we are justified in making a distinction between them, so we say that each of the persons of the Trinity is exhaustive of divinity itself, while yet there is a genuine distinction between the persons. Unity and plurality are equally ultimate in the God-head. The persons of the God-head are mutually exhaustive of one another and therefore of the essence of the God-head. God is a one conscious being, and yet He is also a tri-conscious being.” ~ Van Til, Cornelius. Systematic Theology

In Addition… Christianity offers an objective, absolute standard of

morality because of the nature of God and the preserved Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments

Murder is wrong and always wrong because it violates the very nature of the pure and holy God, Yahweh

Moreover, the preserved Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments relay to the reader the moral and absolute standards of God

Hence, the Christian does not find themselves in the position of “subjectivism” as so many worldviews do

Next…

The Christian worldview can account for the transcendent, universal nature of logic, morality, number and laws in general

It can account for the uniformity of nature (the inductive principle) and in this sense, it’s the foundation of scientific inquiry

It can account for both the materialistic and the abstract realm of reality

And…

It is the only worldview or system of thought that can account for all of the preconditions of human experience simultaneously

Meaning, it accounts for the universals, abstractions/immaterial, the physical universe, transcendence, personal identity, the nature of man and his meaning and purpose, induction, logical absolutes, moral absolutes and it answers the problem of “The One and the Many”

Conclusion…

Only the Christian world and life view can account for the preconditions of human experience

Therefore, only the Christian worldview can be true.. Hence, the Christian worldview is the only objective

source of morality

“The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”” (Psalms 14:1 ESV)

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” (Proverbs 1:7 ESV)

“For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (Colossians 2:1–3 ESV)