Morality is defined by the character of God, Tanya Walker said at Catalyst Live.
An atheistic view of morality creates problems that even atheists recognize, Walker told Catalyst Live in Sheffield and Reading, England.
Walker, who is an apologist with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries Europe, said that without belief in God, there is no such thing as objective morality.
“If God does not exist, objective moral values do not exist, as there is not a grounding to base them in,” she said. “Once you take God out of the picture, all you have left is feelings.”
A popular argument by atheists is that our genes are motivated by evolutionary success and not morality.
However, the evidence suggests this is not the case, Walker asserted. If we are not motivated by truth, then our minds cannot be trusted because truth would be an illusion created by our genes.
If we stick to such an extreme evolutionary model, then the sacrifice of the strong, seen in examples like Mother Teresa’s service to the poor in India, would not make sense.
“Self-sacrifice would only work if a weaker person laid down their life for a stronger one,” she said.
Walker argued that objective morality only worked if rooted in a Christian view of God because of what it says about God.
“The moral law is not grounded in the commands of God but is grounded in the character of God,” she said. “The moral law is a glimpse into the glory of God itself.”
Walker also said that we find it too easy to blame others for their moral failings, but we don’t face up to our own.
“We are so good at placing the blame on people somewhere else,” Walker said. “We need to remember that we all stand on the same ground in front of the cross.”
Chris Hall is the editor of BMS World Mission’s Engage magazine. A version of this news article about Walker’s presentation at the 2014 Catalyst Live event first appeared on the BMS World Mission website. It is used with permission. You can follow him on Twitter @chrishallnewb and BMS @BMSWorldMission.
Editor’s note: A photo news story from Catalyst Live 2014 is available here. Previous articles about Catalyst Live include:
Martin Accad: The Silent Majority in the Middle East Seeks Peace
Walter Brueggemann: Churches Should Be Source of Greater Honesty
