Kai Nielsen (a self-proclaiming atheist and ethics
professor at University of Calgary) once said:
“We have not been able to
show that reason requires the moral point of view or that all really
rational persons should not be individual egoists or classified
amoralists. Reason doesn't decide here. The picture I have painted
for you is not a pleasant one. Reflection on it depresses me...Pure
practical reason, even with a good knowledge of the facts, will not
take you to morality.”
Why? Because inevitably it
all comes back to: “It's bad because it makes me uncomfortable.”
But what if it doesn't make you uncomfortable, but instead gives you
a sense of pleasure to pull the limbs off of infants and watch them
die? Just the thought grieves me to the point of feeling quite ill, yet we allow this in
society through abortion on a daily basis. Is adultery wrong? To
say it is wrong on the basis that you made a promise to remain
faithful at marriage doesn't hold water....just don't make the
promise. If it ISN'T wrong, then why have marriage at all? Everyone
should just sleep with whomever they want whenever they want. There is the disease thing that comes of it. What difference should
that make? There must be no evil in disease if there is no evil in
the act that causes it.
The argument can go back and
forth as long as we want, but it all boils down to the fact that
without God there are no real moral standard – only our perception
of right and wrong compared to what makes us feel good and happy.
The problem with feelings is they are fleeting. What makes me feel happy today may bore me tomorrow. If there is a God (and we know there must be or why would we even be thinking about right and wrong in the first place) then we may have to give up happiness, but why desire only happiness when we can have deep and abiding joy?!
Father, help us learn to discern between what makes us feel happy and what brings us real joy. True joy comes only from having a loving relationship with You. Plant in us, your children, a deep and burning desire to know You better. As we grow in our walk with You, we will automatically begin to experience the difference between fleeting feelings and never ending joy.
The problem with feelings is they are fleeting. What makes me feel happy today may bore me tomorrow. If there is a God (and we know there must be or why would we even be thinking about right and wrong in the first place) then we may have to give up happiness, but why desire only happiness when we can have deep and abiding joy?!
Father, help us learn to discern between what makes us feel happy and what brings us real joy. True joy comes only from having a loving relationship with You. Plant in us, your children, a deep and burning desire to know You better. As we grow in our walk with You, we will automatically begin to experience the difference between fleeting feelings and never ending joy.
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