No God, No Savior, No Basis for Morality

"Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment" (John 7:24).

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, according to The O'Reilly Factor (April 17, 2014), sought and received permission to place a sign in Madison, Wisconsin, the state capitol, which reads:

Nobody died
For our "sins"
Jesus Christ
is a myth

This is the way the sign appears—without punctuation, without accuracy, and without truth. In examining the first half of the ten-word propaganda piece, we find that whoever composed the sentence apparently does not believe in the concept of sin, since he used quotation marks. If, then, the individual does not believe in sin, does he believe in good and evil, or are all actions the same? Do we not distinguish between a bank robber who kills four employees, along with a guard, and a philanthropist who donates $10,000 to a cancer sufferer in order to pay his bills? Yet some atheists insist that we are all molecules in motion and that whatever happens does not result from any choice we might think we make; all actions are random. If we are only the result of previous programming (genes) or our environment, then people cannot be any different than what they are.

If such a philosophy were true, then why operate prisons? Why punish a mass murderer when he cannot be other than what he is? And why reward someone for doing well when he is simply following his hereditary impulses? Why make a fuss over the bright teenager and make him valedictorian of his high school class when he is simply the product of good genetic engineering? And why fine the one that is out drag racing on a country road?

An article from the front page of the Orlando Sentinel says that 44 people were caught in a sex sting operation (4-16-14).

An offer of a drink and snacks was all it took to lure the 14-year-old girl into a man's car. She quickly found out she had made a terrible mistake.

Less than seven hours later, Lake [sic] deputies rescued the terrified and confused teenager after she had been kidnapped and forced to have sex by an assailant who then tried to use her as a prostitute, authorities said (A1).

The man who perpetrated this crime was arrested, along with 43 others, but why? Can any of these people be blamed for what they are? If God does not exist and if "sin" does not exist, then we have no way of defining right or wrong—in fact, we cannot even use those words. We do not know what the person who crafted the word on the sign specifically meant, but the implication is that sin does not exist, which implies that good and evil do not exist. An atheist might find the actions of the one who kidnapped the girl deplorable, but on what basis? If we are living in a material universe, then such things as God, conscience, sin, and guilt are simply manufactured figments of our imagination.

"Are you saying that atheists cannot be moral?" No, what we are saying is that they have no basis for morality because of their core beliefs. Once they admit that the kidnapper did evil, they have admitted moral value, which they deny exists. They might retort, "But they made her an unwilling participant, thus denying her rights and freedoms." Nice try, but a material universe knows nothing of rights; freedom does not exist in a random universe.

Does an ocean refuse to drown an innocent child? Does a fire refuse to burn to death a young mother and her baby? Does cancer only strike those who have smoked? Is a safe driver immune from a fatal accident? An impersonal world knows nothing of "rights."

Fairness and Arrogance

Such events are neither fair nor unfair in a world without God because standards and value can only exist in a moral universe. If God does not exist and we originated from a physical universe, then we only imagine that we have a spiritual side. Love, virtue, sacrifice, and nobility comprise wishful thinking. The expectation of a reward for doing right is as much an invention as a place of punishment for the wicked. If atheism is true, therefore, we have no guilt from which to be absolved.

Is it not arrogant, however, for an atheist to state unequivocally to others that they have no sins? An unbeliever might counter by saying, "You're just as arrogant by insisting that people need to be forgiven of sins." But given the two options, most people know they have done wrong. It squares with reality. Why do people make apologies? They know they have acted badly (by their own or someone else's estimation) and are capable of doing better. Atheism must deny that option, since no such thing as bad behavior exists. So the first statement in the ad is inaccurate, and the vast majority of people know it. We know evil exists and that someone who forces a 14-year-old girl to surrender her virtue stands guilty of objective, moral wrong. It would be presumptuous to try to convince us otherwise.

Is Jesus A Myth?

The second statement is equally erroneous. Ample historical references by those outside of the Bible confirm the existence of Jesus. Do unbelievers honestly think that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John just made up stories? How can the miracles that occurred which caused people to believe in Jesus and the apostles be discounted? Citizens of that age were probably more skeptical than many are today. The claims of Jesus would not have been believed or accepted without abundant proof.

Particularly difficult to accept would be His rising from the dead after being crucified. Nothing akin to this is part of anyone's experience. How did Peter convince the Jews, who clamored for Jesus' death just 50 days earlier, of the truth of the resurrection? A miracle brought a multitude together; Peter explained that what happened was the fulfillment of a prophecy, as was Jesus being put to death and being raised from the dead. Furthermore, eyewitnesses had seen Him!

People were not gullible in the first century. It would have been difficult to have offered any more proof than what the people received. What could be better than a miraculous event witnessed by hundreds or thousands, at which time the fulfillment of an event prophesied more than 1,000 years previously is explained and vouched for with eyewitness testimony? Anyone who could deny all this evidence could deny anything. Jesus was real, not mythical; He is the Savior of all who choose Him; the Bible is true—and the only source of morality. God created us in His image.