Argument From Morality

The argument from morality is an argument for the existence of God. Arguments from morality tend to be based on moral normativity or moral order. Arguments from moral normativity observe some aspect of morality and argue that God is the best or only explanation for this, concluding that God must exist. Argument from moral order are based on the asserted need for moral order to exist in the universe. They claim that, for this moral order to exist, God must exist to support it.

German philosopher Immanuel Kant devised an argument from morality based on practical reason. Kant argued that the goal of humanity it to achieve perfect happiness and virtue (the summum bonum) and believed that an afterlife must exist in order for this to be possible, and that God must exist to provide this. Both theist and nontheist philosophers have accepted that, if objective moral truths exist, then God must too exist; the argument from moral objectivity asserts that objective moral truths do exist, and that God must exist too. C. S. Lewis supported this argument and challenged the evolutionary naturalistic view of morality – that morality evolved and is a human construct – by arguing that without objective moral truths, moral scepticism would set in, leading to moral anarchy. He concluded that, because people act as if is morality is an objective truth, then it must be, and that God must exist. A related argument is from conscience; John Henry Newman argued that the conscience supports the claim that objective moral truths exist because it drives people to act morally even when it is not in their own interest. Newman argued that, because the conscience suggests the existence of objective moral truths, God must exist to give authority to these truths.