Myth Conception #2 - People Are Basically Good Without God

A favorite myth among the atheists is that people are basically good and moral beings and left to their own without involvement from religions they're just dandy. The only real problem with this theory is that it's not true. Left to their own without moral guidance people are evil, nasty, selfish, murderous animals. History records atrocity after atrocity after atrocity with millions slaughtered for purely evil reasons. Then again history records atrocity after atrocity with millions slaughtered for reasons that sounded pretty good at the time.

To a Christian goodness is a sign that God is working within us, guiding us and sanctifying us. It's an indication of a long term building project that God has for each one of us. It is God that is the one that defines what is good, He sets the standards and He expects that these standards be met. Paul tells us that goodness is one of the fruits of God's spirit:

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)

But what is goodness to an atheist? It's not all that good; 


To an atheist goodness is called "morality". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states that morality is following codes of conduct that are put forth by society or some other group of people such as a religion or political faction, it's following codes of conduct that an individual makes up for himself, or morality is a code of conduct that, given specified conditions, would be put forward by all rational persons.

In other words, Goodness comes from God, morality comes from man. Where God specifically states what is not good: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing... (Gatalians 5:19-21) the atheist relies on a set of rules that were made up by a group of people who may or may not know what goodness is. 

So philosophically you can make the argument that the German SS soldier leading Jewish prisoners into the gas chambers was acting morally because he was following the rules set forth by his society. If you argue that a rational person would not have done that, the counter argument would be that if he had not done that his family would have been killed and a rational person will protect their family so he is still acting morally. 

Another thing about morality is that it changes. God does not change (Malachi 3:6) and therefore His definition of goodness does not change. 3,500 years ago God flatly, undeniably said that men having sex with men was disgusting (Leviticus 18:22). God hasn't changed His mind regarding homosexual acts, in fact He uses it to punish godless nations (Romans 1:18-32). Meanwhile morality changed from paralleling God's position on homosexual acts to 'don't ask, don't tell' to outright embracing the liberal left's new idol of gayness.

Atheists claim that morality is a product of evolution and a ruse to get chicks:

I appreciate that when somebody says ‘Love they neighbor as thyself,’ they think they are referring above and beyond themselves . . . . Nevertheless, . . . such reference is truly without foundation. Morality is just an aid to survival and reproduction, . . . and any deeper meaning is illusory . . (Michael Ruse, The Darwinian Paradigm, 1989)

This is the heights that the atheist ideal of morality can rise to - a moral person behaves like the rest of the herd in order to get food and sex. As Paul Kurtz states in  Forbidden Fruit:the Ethics of Secularism

“The moral principles that govern our behavior are rooted in habit and custom, feeling and fashion,”

Which to me as a Christian means that moral principles are based in nothing, and as a life long cynic it tells me that moral principals are based in even less than that. Feelings and fashion? I know that people actually make moral choices based on Feelings which is always a horrific choice, but fashion? Ok, I admit I know that people make moral choices based on fashion, such as homosexuality, not long ago that sin was still a sin, now it's fashionable to be "tolerant" and "accepting" of things that the media tells you to be "tolerant" and "accepting" of. So now it's not a sin, it's fashionable. How many times is "Fashionable" found in the bible?

Hint: 0

Think about it - is there any  issue that 'morality' hasn't changed on? From divorce to eating meat, from euthanasia to homosexuality, what man calls moral has changed position time and time again, while what God has decreed as good and evil hasn't changed. Not once. He is our rock, He is the pier we moor our boat to in a storm tossed sea. When confronted with a moral dilemma some people ask "WWJD - What Would Jesus Do?" What would he do? He'd PRAY. He'd pray to the God whose goodness overrules all moral dilemmas.