Evidence of a Creator - 1/5

Monday
Morality: Right and Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe

Excerpts and adaptations from “The Case for Christianity” –C. S. Lewis

There is an instinctive morality that people have and expect others to follow as well. You can see it in the world around us all the time from the extremes of “don’t murder or steal,” to “I was here first,” or “this was my spot.” Have you ever tried cutting in line in front of others and try to convince them it was ok because you wanted to be in the front? It wouldn’t go over very well.

Scholars once called this morality the Law of Human Nature because they believed the human idea of good behavior was obvious to everyone. This is generally true although culture can play a small part in its variations. However, cultures/ civilizations and Ages have really only changed this morality by slight differences. All have held to some type of honor and code, even bandits have a sense of brotherhood. Bravery was exalted over cowardice and so on. If you don’t believe me that all cultures hold to this similar morality, I have an experiment for you. Go to the inner city of someplace like Harlem or LA, find a line at grocery store and cut in at the front and see what they say. Then try the same thing in Beverly Hills or the next time you visit Europe, Asia or Australia. Go to an African or South American tribe, walk in someone’s hut and eat a piece of his or her fruit. This type of behavior is just not accepted by anyone.

Not only do we all believe and act upon a certain system of right and wrong, but we have also failed our own system at times. If we didn’t believe in some type of value system we wouldn’t make excuses for our own bad behavior. “I got angry because I was tired,” or “I stole because I was hungry and out of a job.” “I couldn’t make it to your ball game that I promised because I had to work late or something came up.”

This moral law however, is more than just our basic “herd” instinct. For example, if you heard someone cry out in a desperate situation you would feel two immediate instincts. The first would be to help; this is the “herd” instinct. The second would be the desire to keep yourself out of danger; this is the instinct of self-preservation. You will however, encounter a third impulse. This impulse confirms that you should help because “it’s the right thing to do.” The third impulse tries to suppress the impulse to run away and strengthen the impulse to help. You convince yourself to help through reasoning and pity and so on until you build up the nerve to intervene. So eventually you dive in the water to save the drowning or tackle the purse-snatcher and so on.

The question then becomes, “where does this moral law come from?” I believe we can reason that the impulse must come from something outside ourselves. Something or someone has given us this moral law of nature to cause us to act a certain way. Just as the architect of a house could not be a wall or staircase within the house itself, neither can our being or moral impulses be created by something that is already a part of us. There must be someone or something outside of ourselves that has made us the way we are for a certain reason.

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” Psalm 139:13

C. S. Lewis was an early twentieth century English philosopher and professor of medieval and Renaissance literature at Oxford and Cambridge Universities. He was an unbeliever for many years until he decided to study the reason for the world around him and the claims of Christianity. He concluded there must be a God!