Are you a good person? Many people would quickly answer, “Of course! I do lots of good.” But, by what standard could someone say if they are?
For Christians, the standard is God. Jesus proclaimed in Luke 18:19, “No one is good but One, that is, God.” If God is the standard, then I don’t even come close.
Since we have God as a standard of good and evil, Christians have a unique ability to judge what is right and what is wrong. We can look at God’s word, understand His moral law, and apply it to the world. But, what if someone does not believe in God? Can they have a standard for good and evil? The answer is no.
Atheists believe in a reality that is totally reliant on evolution for the explanation of human existence. The only standard that matters to the atheist, then, is the law of the survival of the fittest. So, the only ethic in evolution is that what is good is what leads to the advancement of the human population.
The atheist worldview makes morality imaginary. Without God, there is no standard for morals. If the survival of the fittest is the rule, then anything I do to get there, no matter how heinous, is permissible. It is simply unimportant matter acting upon other unimportant matter. Joel Marks, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of New Haven in West Haven, Connecticut, admitted this reality saying, “The religious fundamentalists are correct: without God, there is no morality. But they are incorrect, I still believe, about there being a God. Hence, I believe, there is no morality.”
This worldview has dire consequences. A famous evolutionist concluded, “Truly, this earth is a trophy cup for the industrious man. And this rightly so, in the service of natural selection. He who does not possess the force to secure his [living space] in this world, and, if necessary, to enlarge it, does not deserve to possess the necessities of life. He must step aside and allow stronger peoples to pass him by.” You may have guessed that the man who said this was none other than Adolf Hitler. By this rationale he convinced a nation to be complicit in the murder of millions.
Thanks be to God that the atheists are wrong! We all know that Hitler’s actions were evil. If evil can be judged, then God is real. Because God is real, we can know what is right and wrong, and He showed us in His word. We are not insignificant matter. We are bearers of the image of God (Gen. 1:27). Every image-bearer is my neighbor, and I cannot do evil against him (Gen. 9:6; Lev. 19:18). Do you want to be a good person? Then put faith in the only One who is good. Believe in God.