Is God Necessary for Ethics?

This is a debate that took place last year between one of the elders in our church and a atheist professor.

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John J.
Member Christ Prebyterian Church (OPC) Preparing For Eldership
Salt Lake City, Utah
www.christpres.net
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us...
Currently reading Patristic Roots of Reformed Worship

God is necessary for breath so.....

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http://www.myspace.com/aleavelle
"Speak wisdom to a fool and he'll think you have no sense at all"

From a degenerate filthy rag sinner's point of view, no. But from a sovereign perfect creator God point of view, yes. I think from the secular standpoint, there is a relative ethical standard, but from a divine standpoint there is an objective ethical standard. Often the sooner will cross over the latter but never will it be the same, nor will it ever be greater.

just my

Blessings,

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Rev. Toby Holland
Director of Evangelism
Wiltsie Community Church (CCCC)

God is necessary for objective and absolute ethics. If you let them define down ethics as something such as a personal preference, simple majority or if it is benificial to the human race etc. etc., it is not the same thing. This is why in a debate you need to emphasize this point and never let them stray off of the point that what we are talking about is an absolute, invariant and objective definition of ethics. If you do this, you should win hands down every time. I posted a good article on my website that illustrates this point very thoroughly. The article is called The Other Side: Metaphysics and Meaning. This article deals with each definition of ethics that an unbeliever might throw out and aptly demonstrates that each definition ends up being less than any person should be willing to accept. Just click on the link in my signature and scroll down to the article if you would like to read it.

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David Morrow
Faith Community Church
Kansas City, MO
http://presupposetheism.blogspot.com

Atheists may act and speak about morality as if they can intelligibly provide one...fact is, they cannot provide a viable *normative* "ought"...what they describe as ethics is best described as taste...that's why a consistent atheist cannot condemn cannibalism any more than he can eating pumpkin pie.

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Craig French
Married and father of a beautiful daughter.
Member of Christ The Word, PCA
Toledo, OH

My avatar is not me...it's my daughter (in case anyone was wondering!)
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