Perhaps author Comfort’s best argument for the existence of God, is his discussion of the conscience and morality. (selections from Reagan Schrock's book review, published in Creation Research Society Quarterly Journal, Volume 48, Number 4, Spring 2012)
If we are simply highly evolved animals, why and how do we know right from wrong? What makes us decide, for example, that murder is wrong? “The problem with atheism,” writes Comfort, “is that it has a shifting morality. There are no moral absolutes. How can there be, when [according to atheism] morality is thought to come through human consensus, rather than divine mandate” (p. 87)? If humans are just biological machines composed of random chemicals that formed over millions of years, there is no reason to believe in moral absolutes.
As Comfort points out on the same page, this is one of the clearest differences between humans and animals. If humans are just animals that are more highly evolved than the rest, why are we the only species to have a clear sense of justice? Why do we punish wrongdoers? No other animal does anything like this. If someone is wronged, most of us naturally want to make it right.
“We know right from wrong,” continues Comfort, “because the conscience is an impartial judge in the courtroom of the mind. It speaks to us irrespective of our will” (p. 87). This is why a lie detector (polygraph) works so well to detect lies. Our conscience tells us lying is wrong and we react physically. For example, a person’s blood pressure and heart rate will spike when he lies and the polygraph picks up the changes. If there were no absolutes, the polygraph would not work because we would not have a conscience to tell us when we err.
This book is a welcome addition to the field of apologetics, especially for the layman.
How to Know God Exists by Ray Comfort
Bridge-Logos Publishers,
Alachua, FL, 2007, 192 pages,
$13.00.
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