One thing noticeably absent from recent debates in Australia is any reference to God. It’s believed that euthanasia, same sex marriage, and abortion are all issues to be settled irrespective of the Bible. The assumption is, God has not given us a moral standard, so God will not keep us accountable to a moral standard. If we’re not the workmanship of a Creator, we’re the product of an accident – a big bang, followed by billions of years of evolution. Matters of morality therefore, are to be decided, not by divine revelation, but by debate and democracy.
The problem is, once we do away with God, all that remains is our thoughts. The difference between right and wrong is determined by our thoughts. Our thoughts decide what’s good and what’s bad. Ideas like “moral” and “immoral” mean whatever we think they mean. So, if all that remains is our thoughts, then what basis do we have to trust our thoughts to be true?
C.S. Lewis once said, “If the solar system was brought about by an accidental collision, then the appearance of organic life on this planet was also an accident, and the whole evolution of Man was an accident too. If so, then all our present thoughts are mere accidents – the accidental by-product of the movement of atoms.”
Whatever thoughts you hold, they are all accidents. The very thought you’re thinking right now is the accidental by-product of a long chain of accidents. But if this is the case, if all of our thoughts are mere accidents, then why should we believe them to be true?
Lewis continues: “I see no reason for believing that one accident should be able to give me a correct account of all the other accidents. It’s like expecting the accidental shape taken by the splash when you upset a milk-jug should give you a correct account of how the jug was made and why it was upset.”
