Ephesians 6:12 “Our struggle is against the powers of darkness and against the spiritual forces of evil.”

People who claim to be “moral realists” claim there exist objective moral values and duties that are independent of one’s opinion or beliefs. This means there are moral truths (right versus wrong, good versus evil) which are true, real and binding on people regardless of whether one believes them.

On the other hand, people claiming to be “moral anti-realists” would say morality is only true, real or binding on someone if they believe it (the facts in question are made true or false based on one’s opinion or belief).

Last week, Professor Tyler McNabb explained the philosophical views of “Proper Functionalism” (if our minds are functioning properly, we can know what is true in reality) and “justification” (unless someone presents a clear defeater for your belief, holding to that belief is a sound position).

As Professor McNabb concluded, “I think the really uncomfortable position to take is that the child sex trafficking you are watching in ‘Sound of Freedom’ is not objectively wrong but instead only the product of some evolutionary or sociobiological effect.” In other words, moral realism is a sound position to hold.

How do we make the connection between moral realism, as seen in ‘Sound of Freedom,’ and Christianity?

Professor McNabb explains: “You would probably expect there to be objective moral duties more on theism than atheism. Or you could go the route of thinking that naturalism cannot fully account for moral obligations because you are going to need some sort of moral authority or obligator, such as God.

The third way to go is moral knowledge (we just know certain objective truths about morality). The question then becomes: is knowledge about objective morality more surprising with theism or atheism? I think we can develop the argument that objective morality is more predicated on theism than atheism, even going to the point that moral knowledge is impossible for a committed naturalist.”

Cameron Bertuzzi pointed out in his interview with Professor McNabb that while watching ‘Sound of Freedom’ he never got the sense that the evil of child trafficking led him to think God did not exist: “In the movie, the characters trying to save the children never question their faith. In fact, it was just the opposite. Tim Ballard’s message throughout the movie is ‘These are God’s children. They are not for sale.’”

Many world-renowned analytical philosophers agree with Cameron and Professor McNabb’s assessment that the existence of evil, such as child sex trafficking, is a strong argument for God’s existence.

Alvin Plantinga, Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame and one of the world’s most important living philosophers, has this to say: “Could there really be such a thing as horrifying wickedness if there were no God and we just evolved? I don’t see how. There can be such a thing only if there is a way that rational creatures are supposed to live. A secular way of looking at the world has no place for genuine moral obligation of any sort… and thus no way to say there is such a thing as genuine and appalling wickedness. Accordingly, if you think there really is such a thing as horrifying wickedness, then you have a powerful argument for the reality of God.”

William Lane Craig, Professor of Philosophy at Biola University and the world’s most recognized Christian apologist, explains why naturalism and atheism fail in explaining evil: “On a naturalistic view, moral values are just the behavioral by-products of biological evolution and social conditioning. Just as a troop of baboons exhibit co-operative and even self-sacrificial behavior because natural selection has determined it to be advantageous in the struggle for survival, so homo sapiens – their primate cousins – exhibit similar behavior for the same reason. As a result of sociobiological pressures there has evolved among homo sapiens a sort of ‘herd morality’ that functions well in the perpetuation of our species.

But on the atheistic view: there does not seem to be anything that makes this morality objectively true. If there is no God, any basis for regarding that herd morality evolved by homo sapiens as objectively true seems to have been removed. Take God out of the picture, and all you seem to be left with is an apelike creature on a tiny speck of dust beset with delusions of moral grandeur.”

As Professor McNabb says, just watch ‘Sound of Freedom and you will have a very compelling argument for God’s existence because of the truth of moral realism and the reality of truly sinister evil.
“The Evidence of Faith’s Substance” _ Article #566