22 On Ethics (Part 5): God and Ethics

Ethics as an argument for God’s existence seldom convinces the unbelieving, as it is conceived at the wrong level. Atheists know themselves as ethically concerned while at the same time denying God. That is, there is a fundamental disconnect between their ontological experience as ethical beings and the metaphysical explanation of ethics as dependent upon God. For them ethics is REAL based on their experience, and thus does not require God. Faith is always the foundation on which we construct our knowledge-structures. Atheists believe first that God does not exist, so clearly ethics is not dependent upon God. This conclusion is completely logical, when you start with that premise, as is the conclusion that ethics requires God when we start with the premise that God is possible. I claim that it is only by explaining away the evidence of ontology, of lived human life, at the metaphysical level, that we can conclude that God does not exist. Mine is not a new argument for God’s existence, but a plea to accept the evidence of ontology AS evidence of something important. If we destroy human reason at the most basic level, the level of lived life, what right have we to trust it at the higher level of metaphysics?