So, we’re back on an every-other-week schedule for the Truth & Evidences series, currently looking at some various things that in existence, and discussing their origin – such as the origin of life, the origin of the physical universe … and next, the origin of morality.

My sister-in-law made an interesting point the other day. Some things are things that we decide or choose – for instance, whether I feel like vanilla or chocolate ice cream. Some things, on the other hand, are not decided, but rather they are discovered – for instance, that 1+1=2. No one decided that, it just IS. And things that simply ARE, and yet show order, organization, and purpose, we have to ask ourselves – what is their origin?

But asking “where did it come from?” presumes that is does exist. Does morality, in fact, exist? Basically, the question of whether morality exists is asking this: is there right and is there wrong? If even one thing exists that IS, in fact, absolutely and universally wrong, then a universal moral standard exists. And if a universal moral standard exists, then we have to ask where it came from.

We won’t be getting into every aspect of this today, but rather just beginning to think about the topic, and look at it in more detail over the next few posts in this series.

Consider this quote C. S. Lewis,

The moment you say that one set of moral ideas can be better than another, you are, in fact, measuring them both by a standard, saying that one of them conforms to that standard more nearly than the other. But the standard that measures two things is something different from either. You are, in fact, comparing them both with some Real Morality, admitting that there is such a thing as a real Right, independent of what people think, and that some people’s ideas get nearer to that real Right than others. Or put it this way. If your moral ideas can be truer, and those of the Nazis less true, there must be something — some Real Morality — for them to be true about. The reason why your idea of New York can be truer or less true than mine is that New York is a real place, existing quite apart from what either of us thinks. If when each of us said ‘New York’ each means merely ‘The town I am imagining in my own head’, how could one of us have truer ideas than the other? There would be no question of truth or falsehood at all.

Is there anything that is absolutely wrong? For instance, does the statement, “racism is wrong”, actually have any meaning? Were Hitler’s actions toward the Jews wrong, or is it merely a relative question of opinion? I would argue that, yes, there is an absolute right and wrong – some standard which is universal and absolute.

The other view is that everything is relative – that there is no absolute right or wrong. One might point out “situation ethics” questions … such as “Suppose you were in a life boat with four people – you, an old man, a young woman, and young child. The lifeboat is sinking because there is only enough room for three people. What do you do?” Because some people struggle or disagree with what to do in such a situation, some conclude that there is no absolute moral standard. However, the fact that people struggle with how to handle such a situation points, rather, to the fact that they have a sense of right or wrong – that there is a standard and they are trying to determine which course of action is most in alignment with it. If there really is no right and wrong, no moral standard, then you could answer, “Just toss them all overboard, and keep the whole boat for yourself. Or better yet, keep one or two, but kill them and use them for food.” And if there is no absolute right and wrong, then no one has any right claim to such an answer is wrong any more than they could claim that a preference for vanilla is better than a preference chocolate. That is, if there is no absolute.

There are a number of things to consider on this topic. Over the next few posts in the series, we’ll be looking at different aspects of it – does a moral standard exist? Or is everything just relative? And if it DOES exist, what is its origin?