Can we prove that morality is not just a human creation but
that it has its own independent existence, like gravity, which exists independently
of our thought life? Besides, if morality consists of objective moral laws to
which we must conform to avoid the consequences, like we must to gravity, this
fact provides more evidence of the existence of a moral law-Giver.
C.S. Lewis famously observed that our reactions acknowledge
that objective moral laws are imprinted upon our conscience:
·
Whenever you find a man who says he does not
believe in a real Right and Wrong, you will find the same man going back on
this a moment later. He may break his promises to you, but if you try breaking
one to him he will be complaining, “It’s not fair.”
·
If we do not believe in decent behavior, why should
we be so anxious to make excuses for not having behaved decently? The truth is
we believe in decency so much—we feel the Rule of Law pressing on us so—that we
cannot bear to face the fact that we are breaking it, and consequently we try
to shift the responsibility. (Mere
Christianity)
These reactions are so universal that they seem to be part
of our DNA. We also have the evidence presented by various child psychologists
who have recognized that specific moral cognitions are programmed to appear in
children at specific ages.
Through interviews that he had conducted with children at different
developmental stages, Lawrence Kohlberg found that there are predictable stages
of child development. At the “preconventional” stage, which he observed from
age 2 or 3 to age 7 or 8, children do not take into account social conventions.
Instead, children judge whether an action is good or bad according to the
consequences that it will have for themselves and is focused upon their
authority figures. From about age 7 to about age 15, “conventional morality”
comes into play from the moment that a child realizes that there are conventions
in society that must be followed.
If moral and awareness and judgments have been
pre-programmed into our DNA, we need to ask what had performed this programming.
Was it natural selection (NS) or intelligent design (ID)? NS cannot account for the DNA code, which is a
prerequisite for both life and any possibility of NS.
It can perhaps be argued that DNA, life, and NS precede the
evolution of our inscribed moral law. However, this law is not a simple thing.
Instead, it is so complex that it requires numerous pieces of DNA information.
Why must this be? The moral response requires many integrated parts:
1.
Feeling guilty by doing evil.
2.
Trying to cope with the feelings of guilt by
finding a way to justify our wrong.
3.
Accepting the fact that we acted wrongly.
4.
Apologizing and feeling some degree of relief.
5.
Receiving forgiveness and feeling further relief
and gratitude.
This is only a simple analysis. Perhaps when we discover
more about it, we will find that it is far more complex, entailing many
intricate bio-electrical responses that account for feelings of guilt, threat,
relief, and our internal perceptions of these states. In any event, what we see
is more easily explained by ID, instead of the many mutations that would be
required to construct and implant this network of responses.
How can morality be
objective in light of the many moral differences we find, especially across
culture? This is a common objection. However, such an observation cannot be
used to argue against the existence of objective moral laws. Similarly, observations
that gravity acts relatively upon different objects in different conditions
cannot be used as evidence to deny the law of gravity. The fact that gravity
makes some substances rise and others fall simply acknowledges that multiple
forces or considerations are at play and not that there isn’t an objective law
of gravity, which operates in concert with other factors.
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