God on Trial, Part 2

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The posts in this series are excerpted from an article titled “God on Trial:  Applying Modern Legal Standards to Assess Arguments For and Against the Existence of God” by Michael Conklin in the Journal of Christian Legal Thought, Vol. 15, No. 2, 2025.

“Arguments for the Existence of God

Cosmological Argument

…[E]verything that begins to exist has a cause for its existence…[B]ecause the universe contains all space and time, its cause must transcend space and time, thus being timeless, non-physical, and non-material…

[P]ositing that the universe is more likely to be eternal than finite is not a feasible objection…[T]he overwhelming scientific and philosophical evidence strongly rejects this…For example, Einstein’s general theory of relativity is only consistent with a finite universe…

…[S]ome atheists try to avoid the implications of the cosmological argument by simply declaring that the universe needs no explanation…Perhaps this is most analogous to a defendant in a civil case stating, ‘In response to all the evidence presented…I just didn’t do it, and that’s all.’

…[A] similar example…is when atheists claim that the universe somehow caused itself to exist…This would be the intellectual equivalent of a defendant trying to explain the existence of illegal contraband in his possession by positing that it must have caused itself to come into existence…

Moral Argument

…God is necessary for objective morality to exist…[M]ost people will acknowledge that objective morality exists…

While it is true that the moral argument completely fails if objective morality does not exist, this is not an attractive option for the atheist.  By claiming that objective morality does not exist, this puts pressing issues such as racism and sexual assault on par with mere faux pas such as wearing white after Labor Day…A moral relativist could make claims such as, ‘I personally would not commit sexual assault’…But they would be unable to state that there is anything morally wrong with one who perpetrates sexual assault…

Some atheists…claim that objective morality can exist apart from God in that whatever helps human flourishing is moral…But such a standard is patently arbitrary, why not instead base morality on whatever helps the flourishing of…dolphins, or pear trees?

…Some atheists attempt to argue against the existence of objective morality by pointing to how different people maintain different opinions regarding morality.  While true, this does nothing to refute the moral argument.  Objective truth does not necessitate unanimity of agreement.  For example, the Earth is objectively spherical even though some people still believe it to be flat…”

This series will conclude next week

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