watch video by Michael Horner
Turning the Tables
There is a fundamental fallacy in the argument against God based on evil. Either our grounds for criticizing God are an ultimate moral standard or not. If not, then we can't criticize God on the basis of only some relative, subjective likes or dislikes. If our grounds are ultimate (ie. an objective, absolute standard of right and wrong that exists independent of man), then we are using an ultimate moral standard which is exactly what Christians mean by God.
So not only does evil not give us a basis for atheism, the existence of real evil actually provides an argument for God's existence!
An argument for God's existence based on the existence of evil
1) If God does not exist, then objective moral principles do not exist.(6)
2) If evil exists, then objective moral principles do exist.
3) Evil exists.
4) Therefore, objective moral principles do exist.(2 & 3)
5) Therefore, God exists.(1 & 4)
back to page 1 >> Can a loving God and evil co-exist? >> 1.2.3
Copyright © 2002 Michael Horner. Used with permission.
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Notes:
- 6. Philip Quinn has pointed out that the only way for premise 1 to be false is if and only if its antecedent is true and its consequent false. To criticize God one needs an objective standard. Therefore the proponent of the problem of evil would admit that the consequent of premise 1 is false. But to show that the antecedent is true he must show that God does not exist. No one has been able to construct a successful argument against classical theism, however. And I have just argued above that the best shot the atheist has - the argument from evil - fails. Therefore, there is no case for arguing that the antecedent is true and therefore that premise 1 is false. ("Divine Command Ethics: A Causal Theory" in Divine Command Morality: Historical and Contemporary Readings, ed. Janine Marie Idziak [New York and Toronto: Edwin Mellen, 1979], p. 318). I am indebted to Richard Davis for bringing this point to my attention.
