Ding! ... or why didn't I think of this yesterday!

You know when you have one of those moments when the light bulb goes off?  Especially hours (or in this case days) after having a discussion with someone?  Well that just happened to me this morning.

Last Monday I spent about an hour talking with my teacher about God and whether or not He is needed for a discussion about ethics.  My teacher was of the opinion that no, you do not need to include God in such a discussion.  His reasoning was that if you follow the Natural Law theory (that there are existent moral laws and we can figure them out) then we can have a discussion about ethics without needing to reference God.

To put it another way, he said let's say that you have car that has the turn signal on the right hand side of the steering column.  Usually they're on the left, but in your car it's on the right.  Now, you could talk to the engineer who designed it and find out why he did it that way.  With a little bit of experimentation, however, you could figure out that it's just on the opposite side and not need to consult any engineer at all.  Likewise, if moral laws do exist, we can figure them out and talk about them without needing to reference God.

So this morning is when the light bulb went off.  True, because of man's natural knowledge of God and His law written upon our hearts, we can have discussions about ethics without reference to God.  People can determine between right and wrong.  Because of sin, this knowledge is not perfect but all people who have ever existed have this knowledge of right and wrong.

Let's go back to the turn signal scenario.  Yes, with experimentation a person could figure out that the turn signal is on the opposite side that it usually is.  BUT if there were NO ENGINEER then there could be NO TURN SIGNALS.  Likewise, if there is NO GOD then there can not be an ethical discussion.  It's sort of like the traditional moral argument:

(1) If God does not exist, objective moral values and duties do not exist.
(2) Objective moral values and duties do exist.
(3) Therefore, God exists.

Think about that.  If there is no God then why should we think there would be any morals at all?  If there is no objective moral law then we're back to simple subjectivism and all that it entails.  I can't believe that I didn't think of it last Monday but I'll be ready next time.

There's another side issue at stake as well.  Notice that my teacher said that we, through experimentation, could have figured out what was going on with the turn signal on the opposite side.  Yet, if there was no engineer to have invented turn signals, could we possibly have ever had experience with turn signals? And if we have never had any experience with turn signals and we suddenly came across a car with a turn signal on the steering column (whether it's on the left or right hand side is irrelevant, remember we've never seen one before) would we ever be able to figure out it's proper use?

We could certainly try.  Someone might say that it should be used to hold hair scrunchies.  Another might say that it should be broken off and thrown away.  Someone else might say that it is there for decoration.  Through some experimentation the group might realize that moving it up and down makes certain lights around the car blink intermittently.  What shall we make of this now?  Are the lights used to signal something or some other use?

Someone may get the idea that the purpose of this device could be used to make the car look pretty.  Others may notice that the tempo of the blinking light may fit with a certain song.  And someone also may say that it could be used to signal to other people when you're changing lanes.  Do any of these people have any chance of knowing for sure what the turn signal is for?  True, the last guy stumbled upon what it is used for but does he have any justification for his belief?  No, it was a shot in the dark like everyone else's and for all he knows it may be correct, but at the same time it certainly may not be correct.  We can recognize that that last guy knew it was the truth, but only because we are outside of the situation and we have knowledge.  We know its true purpose.

So it is with morals.  If there is no God, there is no way for us to know about morals because we can't get outside of our own point of view and see if it is correct.  Even though people have come up with words like 'good' and 'evil', if there is no God then we have no way of knowing whether or not our thinking on ethics is correct or incorrect.

Now we see the side issue.  My teacher took for granted that we could figure out the purpose of a turn signal without referencing the engineer, and even worse it was taken for granted that we can figure out ethics without reference to God.  All too often the powers of the human mind is taken for granted.  It is seen by many that the human mind is the final arbiter of what is and what is not.  It is the human mind that can judge and weigh any sort of evidence and come to a decsion.

Which is exactly what happened in the Garden of Eden.  Adam and Eve decided to weigh the options.  They decided to figure it out by themselves rather then go to the ultimate source of authority and knowledge.  Because Adam and Eve's sin was ethical in nature, this means that all subjects, knowledge, experimentation, and actions are at root ethical in nature.  They either fit with God's way of thinking or go against it.

So that was my 'light bulb' moment of the day.  Thanks for reading.

Day 6 - Does God have anything to do with ethics? ... or Bring It On!

Or maybe not.

I don't know.  Here I've been studying apologetics for a few years now and finally it was time for the rubber to meet the road.  I've been anticipating this class since last September and today was THE DAY where the class topic was God, religion, and ethics.

The teacher couldn't have given me a better opening.  He started with Euthyphro's dilemma which I know how to refute inside and out, upside-down, and backwards.  For those of you who don't know, Euthyphro's dilemma tries to show that depending on God for our morals/ethics makes you choose between two bad choices.  It is said that if you can understand the difference between the two answers to the dilemma then you have the makings of a philosopher.  I won't be giving this a complete treatment, but bear with me.

The setup goes like this:  Is something good because God says it?  Or does God say it because it is good?  Simple enough, eh?  If you answer yes to the first question then imagine if God said that rape is good.  Would you be okay with that?  Probably not, so then the other question must be the correct view, God says it is because it is good.  But if this was the case then 'goodness' is outside of God and therefore we don't need God anymore!  Then you end up stuck on the horns of a dilemma.  Neither choice is preferable.  My teacher did a masterful job of describing it.

The problem with the Euthyphro dilemma is that it's a false dichotomy, that is, it sets up the question assuming there are only two possible answers.  But for a dichotomy to be a true dichotomy there can only be TWO choices.  The choices in a true dichotomy must be actual opposites: A and not-A.  The Euthyphro dilemma gives us the choices A and B.  If the choices are A and B, well then what's wrong with adding a C?  Or a D?  Heck, even an E?  Even the mere possibility of there being a third choice makes the dilemma not a true dilemma anymore.

And this was my chance.  The whole time I had been waiting and waiting for this moment.  I was nervous, my heart was pounding, I'll even admit I was pitting out a little bit (but not too bad, thanks to this fine product).  Finally, here was my chance to stand up for what I believe.  And in front of +20 people who (presumably) don't believe as I do.  Although I'm no David and my teacher is certainly no Goliath, I was ready to stand up and fight, slay the Philistines, and anyone else.  I was Daniel-san ready to take on the whole Cobra-kai.  I was ready to 'Bring It On' with or without jazz hands.

Foreshadowing, anyone?

It seemed that the teacher was finishing his presentation.  I raised my hand and said, "While Socrates' question is a sharp one, it presents a false dilemma."

Teacher: "So what's the third choice?"

Me: "I would say that morality and ethics are grounded in God's character."  See, this choice neatly avoids the problem with Euthyphro's dilemma.  Now it's not preferable BECAUSE it avoids the dilemma, it's preferable because it's true.  The morality we experience is a reflection of God's character.  His holiness is the standard by which all actions are judged.  We know when we are acting correctly when our thoughts/attitudes/actions match God's.

I'm not exactly sure what happened next, but my teacher took my answer to mean that I was in favor of something called "Natural Law Theory".  Simply stated, natural law theory means that moral laws do exist and that we are able to understand and know them.  Sounds good so far, but the teacher went on to say that if we can understand and know them without knowing God, why should God come into play in an ethical discussion?  Therefore an ethical discussion can still be independent and free of God!

Wait, huh?  So although I knew my Euthyphro dilemma very well, all of a sudden I became in favor of natural law theory?  How did that happen?  So during the discussion that ensued I was trying to figure out exactly how to answer natural law theory and figure out how that related to everything else I had reading and studying in apologetics.

See, I've practiced a lot on answering the questions to which I already know the answers.  I spend hours thinking about it, sometimes I even wake up at night and find myself wrestling with these topics trying to figure out how I would answer such-and-such a question and how I would defend this argument and that argument.  This is how much I love apologetics and finally it was my turn to bat it seems like I... I don't know, hit a single?

The teacher ended the class about an hour early and so I stuck around and another student and I spent more time talking about it with the teacher.  I even brought up the whole "assigning ourselves extra credit" idea from a previous post.  He (the teacher) seemed genuinely surprised at some of my views (like all of science depending on God's existence, or people assuming that there are objective moral laws are really standing on Christian ground), but he was still thinking that I was a proponent of natural law theory and it was tough for me to defend my position and work my way out of that.  I just didn't seem to make any head way.

YOU KNOW, MAYBE THAT WAS THE PROBLEM.  I wanted to make headway, when in hindsight that's not MY job.  My only job is to present the truth, and point out the errors.  What happens after that is not up to me, thankfully it's up to God.

Meanwhile, I need to get more prepared.

Thanks for reading.