God is Good

I was standing in a friend’s backyard recently when he turned the conversation to God – a topic he does not particularly enjoy discussing. According to him, preachers are nothing but storytellers and church-goers hypocrites. His biggest problem with God’s existence, though, is that the world is full of suffering. If God existed, in other words, there should be no suffering. Or, as he likes to put it, there are too many starving children.

My typical response to such an argument is that if God doesn’t exist, who cares if children starve. Death by starvation is just nature’s way of “decreasing the surplus population.” Isn’t that good for the climate?

For some reason, my friend thinks that if a god existed, this god would be good. And he believes when he uses the word “good,” any other human being would understand what he means by that word and agree. Either he is correct or highly arrogant.

So, let me ask you. How do you define goodness? Who gets to determine what is good and what is evil? Others might argue that allowing children to die is a moral good – perhaps we should even offer the assistance of euthanasia to expedite the process. Or, would that be evil? If so, why?

This whole line of questioning reminds us that after all the scientific wrangling over God’s existence, we eventually have to get down to morality. We have to talk about good and evil. Even the most ardent atheist refuses to acknowledge a world without morality. Why? Because that world would be utter chaos.

But an honest atheist should be willing to admit that the god-less world he conceives of does not have a place for universal morality. In a brief interview from many years ago, influential atheist, Richard Dawkins, was asked if rape is wrong. In his inimitable way, he responded, “What difference does it make.” He was then pressed on the question, “In your system of belief, can you objectively say that rape is wrong?” He answered, “No.”

Why can’t an atheist declare that rape, starvation, murder, and concentration camps are objectively evil? Because to do so is to claim there is a universal standard of good and evil. Goodness has a universal definition, a definition that comes from God, the universal lawgiver.

The Christmas season is one we tend to think of as “good.” I hope that, as soon as that thought of “goodness” enters your mind, you will remember it only makes sense because God exists!