Response paper to ‘The Basis of Morality’ by Tim Madigan, Philosophy Now

In his article, the Basis of Morality Tim Madigan bring up three main points which I will respond to in this paper. He begins his article by arguing that the existance of a god is something that’s taught to us from the time we’re little. Thus many times, people don’t doubt the existance of a god and use the arguments they grew up learning. He says that if people began searching for answers themselves, they’d find some serious flaws in the arguments they’ve heard all their lives, to justify what they believe in.

How Do We Know the Law Giver Exists?
Tim Madigan says that none of the arguments that people use are valid or persuasive in proving the existance of some sort of a higher power. We are not able to pull God out of the heavens, as most skeptics would like, however there are ways to prove God’s existance to anybody willing to hear. His existence is manifested in the world around us. To begin with the presupposition that God does not exist is major intellectual dishonesty. He jumps straight to the fact that if God cannot be proven, then He must not exist. He then goes on to quote Charles Darwin as saying that most of the existance for God is proven from a deep inward feeling and conviction.
Part of God’s existance is proven through personal experience and feelings, however, he can be shown in many other ways. If you study the Bible honestly, you will see that it is a book that can be trusted to be the word of God. Historically it has been shown to be correct. “Finally,” he says “even if one could prove God exists, this alone would not be sufficient to justify the claims that his rules should be obeyed.” This brings us to his second point.

If God Does Exist, How Do We Know That He is Good?
The God of the Bible in known as being a loving God but also as a hateful, destructive, God. “Why did God allow Satan to torture and destroy all that Job, a faithful servant of God, have?” Tim asks in his Philosophy Now article. There are places in the Bible where God could seem like a hearltess God. However, he had purposes to fulfill and the civilizations he destroyed were people who had rejected him and hated his laws. God, being the creator of mankind, also has the ability to destroy. He doesn’t owe us anything. Assuming the God of the Bible exists, all throughout the Bible he has an overwhelming love for mankind and a desire to see them saved from destruction, sending his only son to pay the penalty that we deserved: death. God is not merely a being who tortures mankind for pleasure, nor does he destroy them for no apparent reason. Each and every time he has a valid purpose for his actions.
Nahum 1:7 “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him.”
Psalms 145:8-9 “The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, Slow to anger and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all, And His tender mercies are over all His works.”
Tim Madigan quotes A.C. Ewing as saying “Without a prior conception of God as good or his commands as right, God would have no more claim on our obedience then Hitler or Stalin except that he would have more power then they did to make things uncomfortable for those who disobey Him.” The fact is, He is God. He created us, He holds our lives in His hand. He created us for a purpose (to glorify Him and live for Him) and if we disobey and rebel against Him, He says he will punish us for that. The evil in this world is not an excuse to deny the existance of God. Could God be good without an evil to compare it to? Would he then be truely good? God does not cause the pain and suffering, He simply allows it to take place.

Must We Follow These Divine Rules Out Of Compunction?
If God is who he claims to be all throughout the Bible and if He is good as His Word claims He is, then there is valid reason to believe that we will and should be punished for our sins, and that this is a just punishment. If we are all a random product of Evolution, how can Tim Madigan claim that our morality is somehow natural? We are all naturally sinful. Leave a child to himself and he will want to steal, and lie and cheat. The child won’t naturally do good. He uses an example from De Waal’s book Good Natured, to show how we could’ve evolved with a natural morality. He talks about how apes will take care of members of their group that are disabled, and how if such a closely related species is like this naturally, then why can’t we be? Man fell, animals didn’t. The Bible never talks about animals being fallen creatures like man was after Adam sinned. Animals never needed a savior to die for them. Man is on a different level. The Bible says in Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
God gave man an ultimatum. Either you obey Him and live for Him and go to heaven when you die, or you reject Him, sin against Him and when you die you go to Hell. God hates sin, and therefore when someone sins against Him He punishes them for that. God’s laws are good, so why shouldn’t we obey them?

“That’s right, well my God is bigger than your stupid theory.” -Jason Storms