God's Top 10 by Andrew Pessin
If you believe in God then you probably believe that God created everything. If you believe in morality then you believe that certain actions are morally right and others wrong. So, if you believe in both God and morality then you probably believe that God created morality.
But not so fast.
Let’s assume that God’s “creation of morality” may be represented by his dictation of the famous Ten Commandments. And now ask: did God dictate these commandments because those things are what’s right and wrong to do, or are those things right and wrong simply because God dictated them?
Suppose it’s the former: God said do it because it’s the right thing to do. But then commanding comes after the rightness of the action; it is not what makes the action right. The action is already right on its own and God merely informs us about it. SO on this view God has not in fact created morality.
So suppose we go for the other option: honoring your parents (say) is the right thing to do simply because God tells you to do it. Here the rightness is due to God, as God’s decreeing it is what makes it the right thing to do. Only now we have no explanation for why God told us to do this thing as opposed to its opposite. God is a free agent after all and could just as easily have said: “Thou shalt dishonor your parents.” Was it simply arbitrary or random that God commanded us to honor rather than dishonor?
No. Genuine morality is not arbitrary in this way. There must be a reason that God commands honoring and forbids murdering (say), rather than their opposites. And the reason is that honoring and murdering are already right and wrong, before His commanding. We’re back in the first option, in other words, according to which morality is not created by God.
So, if you believe in morality you cannot believe that God created everything.
But not so fast.
Let’s assume that God’s “creation of morality” may be represented by his dictation of the famous Ten Commandments. And now ask: did God dictate these commandments because those things are what’s right and wrong to do, or are those things right and wrong simply because God dictated them?
Suppose it’s the former: God said do it because it’s the right thing to do. But then commanding comes after the rightness of the action; it is not what makes the action right. The action is already right on its own and God merely informs us about it. SO on this view God has not in fact created morality.
So suppose we go for the other option: honoring your parents (say) is the right thing to do simply because God tells you to do it. Here the rightness is due to God, as God’s decreeing it is what makes it the right thing to do. Only now we have no explanation for why God told us to do this thing as opposed to its opposite. God is a free agent after all and could just as easily have said: “Thou shalt dishonor your parents.” Was it simply arbitrary or random that God commanded us to honor rather than dishonor?
No. Genuine morality is not arbitrary in this way. There must be a reason that God commands honoring and forbids murdering (say), rather than their opposites. And the reason is that honoring and murdering are already right and wrong, before His commanding. We’re back in the first option, in other words, according to which morality is not created by God.
So, if you believe in morality you cannot believe that God created everything.