Premise 1: The human conscience would not exist if God did not exist

con·science
/ˈkänSHəns/

the sense or consciousness of the moral goodness or blameworthiness of one’s own conduct, intentions, or character together with a feeling of obligation to do right or be good

The conscience is the part of the human psyche that causes metal anguish and feelings sf guilt when humans violate it—and gives us feelings of goodness and well-being when our thoughts, words, and actions obey it. The Bible makes it clear that the human conscience is not a product genetics or evolution but a God-endowed spiritual convention implanted in every every human soul.

Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. ¹⁵ They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right. 

Romans 2:14-15

Romans 2:14-15 says their are three primary purposes the “God-given” conscience serves:

1. The conscience acts as a moral compass, guiding individuals towards what they perceive as good and away from what they perceive as evil. 
2. The conscience serves as a God-given capacity for human beings to exercise self-evaluation
3. The conscience is God’s provisional safeguard for societies because it allows individuals to discern moral truths and act accordingly, potentially preventing actions that could harm others or society as a whole. 
4. The conscience is a witness to the presence of the law of God written on our hearts

The human conscience, with its innate sense of right and wrong is evidence of being made in God’s image reflecting a moral and spiritual dimension that cannot be explained naturally.

Here are the ways the human conscience reflects a moral and spiritual dimension that transcends purely earthly existence:

1. Spiritual Dimension	This capacity for moral judgment is seen as a reflection of God’s own moral nature and a sign of our spiritual connection to the divine.
2. Responsibility and Accountability	The conscience also instills a sense of responsibility and accountability, suggesting that we will be judged for our actions, reinforcing the idea of a higher power and divine justice.
3. Universality	The existence of conscience across cultures and societies, despite varying moral codes, points to an innate human capacity that may be rooted in being made in God’s image.

Throughout the wide world of creation God has left all sorts of signs that point right back at him. Often these clues tell us more than that a divine being exists; they often tell us what kind of divine being exists. Some of these clues lie right before our nose in the world around us, whereas others lie deep inside of us at the level of immediate subjective experience. Among these interior signs is the conscience, which points not merely toward the existence of God but the existence of a personal God.

Matthew Nelson; Does Conscience Point Towards the Existence of God?

The universal nature of human conscience is demonstrated by the consistent moral judgments across cultures and individuals, such as the widespread condemnation of actions like stealing, lying, and harming others, indicating an innate sense of right and wrong.

I have no doubt that our moral code(s) provide survival advantage over many of the alternatives. But this biological benefit does not in itself imply that our ethics developed naturalistically. It may be, for example, that a divine Lawgiver hardwired us with knowledge of moral laws, and one of the benefits of following them is that things will generally go better for us, as well as for others

Mitch Stokes; Philosopher—How to Be an Atheist; Why Many Skeptics Aren’t Skeptical Enough

Evolutionary theory suggests that human conscience and universal moral principles arose from social instincts and higher brain function that enabled us to cooperate and survive more sophistically than our evolutionary ancestors. However, even Charles Darwin acknowledged how challenging it is for non-physical traits such as instincts to be explained solely through natural selection.

 I must premise, that I have nothing to do with the origin of the primary mental powers, any more than I have with that of life itself.

Charles Darwin; Origen of Species Chapter 7

Christians believe that the human conscience, when operating properly, serves as God’s moral compass placed within each person. People instinctively know that God exists (Rom 1:18-20), and that the Law of God is good (Rom 2:14-15). No one has to be persuaded that actions such as murder, lying, stealing, and adultery are wrong— It’s already written on their hearts. The Bible says the reason you find these same values even in cultures with no exposure to the Bible or even other western cultures is because God planted it in all people everywhere.

Challenge Question: Which do you find more plausible: 1. That conscious morality in man is purely a product of natural selection, or 2. That it our conscience is an innate inner sense planted in mankind by God Himself?

Premise 2: Objective morality proves God exist

ob·jec·tive
/əbˈjektiv/

Phenomenon or condition in the realm of sensible experience independent of individual thought and perceptible by all observers : having reality independent of the mind

Merriam Webster Dictionary

Social ethicists who study the value systems of even the most remote civilizations on earth have found that universally societies on average honor the same positive values and condemn the same negative ones. While sociologists acknowledge cultural variations, they have found evidence suggesting that core values like bravery, loyalty, marital fidelity, and truthfulness, are present across cultures, including remote ones, reflecting a phenomenon that is hard to explain naturally.  

Even the smallest obscure civilizations condemn cowardice, murder, selfishness, stealing, lying, and cheating, and adultery. Ironically, these are the same values that comprise most of the Ten Commandments.

• You shall not commit adultery
• You shall not lie or bear false witness
• You shall not steal
• You shall not murder
• Honor your father and mother
• You shall not kill
• You shall not desire your neighbors possessions

“Man is alone in the universe’s unfeeling immensity out of which he emerged by chance.”

Jacques Monod; Nobel Prize Winner “Chance and Necessity

If God does not exist, then as Francis Schaeffer explains, ethics merely explain what is rather than what should be. There is then no objective difference between kindness and cruelty because there is no standard. The very terms “kind” and “cruel” would be meaningless. If man is just a product of blind nature just like all of the other animal species then he should act just like them without conscience, guilt, or unselfishness. In short, if evolution is true then man’s instincts would be condensed to non-abstract “survival of the fittest” and not to follow the moral dictates of the conscience.

Why then does human morality and conscience exist?

Atheist Richard Dawkins argues in The God Delusion that genes act “selfishly” in order to increase their chances of survival and that this is how evolution produced human morality independent of God or religion. This explanation does not explain how natural selection can produce such moral obligation.

Okay. How about this? If Darwinism is true, why should I be good tomorrow? Now, there’s no answer to that. The presumption is—I mean, I could hear the answer in my head—”Oh, because this helps us survive as a group.” But there’s a presumption there that helping us survive as a group is a good thing in itself. What makes it good in itself? The long and short of it is, if Darwinism explains our view of morality, then we have nothing more than relativism because biology cannot make anything bad in itself.

Greg Koukl; Stand To Reason: Is our Morality Just a Product of Evolution?

The materialistic view says: “Man is the product of impersonal time, plus chance, plus matter. As a result, no man has eternal value or dignity nor any meaning other than that which is subjectively derived.”

The materialistic view of morality says: “Morality is defined by every individual according to his own views and interests. Morality is ultimately relative because every person is the final authority for his own views.”

If evolution insists that “Man is different from “other” animals only in degree, not kind— Why then would man’s universal moral instincts be so distinct from the survival instincts of evolutionary cousins which is “eat or be eaten, fight or die”?

Even Gentiles (greek word ethnos or nations), who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. ¹⁵ They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right

Romans 2:14-15

The apostle Paul in Romans 2 is saying that humans of all ethnicities do not have to find out what is moral by reading the Bible, that such knowledge is implanted in every human soul and mentions Gentiles which in the Greek means “Nations”. This does describe the reality we see across all ethnicities where murder, lying, stealing, adultery etc. are universally condemned. Christians believe this shows that God’s law is not something alien, imposed on us from without, but is woven into the very fabric of our souls.

The Christian view says: “Man was created by God in His image, and is loved by God. Because of this, all men are endowed with eternal value and dignity. Their value is not derived ultimately from themselves, but from the source transcending themselves, God Himself.”

The Christian view says: That God has placed in every human the foundational moral principles inherent to human dignity and prosperity and that these principles are immutable because they are rooted in God’s unchanging, holy character.

The Christian view says: That man being created in God’s image with conscience and moral objectivity intact proves that God exists.

The moral argument for God’s existence posits that universal objective moral values necessitate a divine source, and therefore, God’s existence. 

Here’s a breakdown of the argument:

• Premise 1: Objective moral values exist: The argument starts with the assumption that there are objective moral truths, meaning that certain actions are inherently good or bad, regardless of cultural or individual beliefs. 

• Premise 2: God is the necessary foundation for objective morality: The argument suggests that these objective moral values cannot exist without a source external to humanity, and that source is God. 

• Conclusion: Therefore, God exists: If objective moral values exist, and God is the only source for them, then God must exist. 

In order to say that an action is good or evil, one needs an objective and universal moral standard that transcends individual people and individual societies. It must also be personal in nature. Moral standards deal with right and wrong, what should and should not be done. That implies a choice that requires personality and consciousness. A transcendent moral standard would therefore need to be grounded in a conscious, personal, and transcendent reality. Christians find this in God—the only place where such a standard can be found.

Henry Middleton; Can Morality Be Based in our Evolutionary Past?

The universal desire for fairness, honesty, fidelity, protection of property and equal justice and laws is a reflection of mankind’s moral nature which can only be explained by men and women being unique among all other creatures and made in the Image of God.

Mankind’s innate desire and concern for justice is evidence of a moral nature, which itself is evidence that God who is the arbiter of justice is their creator.

Challenge Question: Which is more plausible 1. That man invented morality with his bigger brain to aid cooperation and survival or 2. The reason objective reality is universal is because it is from a source outside of nature, namely God?
 

Premise 3: Man’s spirit tells him God exist

tran·scend·ent
/tran(t)ˈsendənt/

beyond or above the range of normal or merely physical human experience.

The feeling that there’s something beyond oneself, a sense of transcendence or purpose, is often attributed to the “inner man” or the spirit, which is a spiritual aspect of a person, distinct from the physical body. 

Christians believe that being made in the image of God distinguishes mankind from animals in that they have rationality, language and written communication, abstract thoughts, creativity design capability not linked to survival, and the ability to manage. They believe however, that the most important distinction mankind has compared to animals is the ability to perceive God and eternity.

Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart

Ecclesiastes 3:11

The idea that God has placed a sense of eternity in the human heart, a longing for something beyond the temporal world, is the core concept in Ecclesiastes 3:11, suggesting an innate human awareness of a spiritual dimension and purpose. This awareness of eternity points to a spiritual dimension that transcends earthly existence, indicating a divine purpose and destiny. 

This concept aligns with the idea of imago Dei, meaning humans are created in God’s image, reflecting a divine nature and purpose. Solomon in Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that this is an instinct God places in mankind at birth that confirms what their cognitive sense is telling revealing to them when they see the beauty, design, and vastness of the universe, and what their conscience affirms to them concerning moral justice.

This innate sense of transcendence has been found in every country, culture, and permeates all of human history. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that this God given instinct is the reason the two thirds of the world’s population believes in God and that it is metaphysical reality and not just an evolved humanity’s social construct created to help society’s to cooperate and survive.

84 percent of the world’s population is religious, and almost every religion believes in an afterlife of some type

Belief in a god, or a supreme being, and some sort of afterlife is strong in many countries around the globe, according to a new Ipsos/Reuters poll. Only 18% of the people across 23 countries who took part in the poll said they don’t believe in God.

It may seem to many that we live in a secular world but this survey shows just how important spiritual life is to so many global citizens

Bobby Duffy, the London-based managing director of the Social Research Institute at Ipsos.

As of 2024, all fifty U.S. states and the District of Columbia include the teaching of evolution in their public school science standards, while none teach intelligent design and creationism. (Wikipedia) Virtually all American universities teach evolutionary biology as a core part of their biology curricula and research programs. Nonetheless, despite the whole education system in America teaching that the Universe and man were the result of chemical and natural processes and nothing else—the vast majority of Americans believe in God, Life after Death, and Heaven and Hell.

Center For Public Opinion Research Results	Poll: Americans and the Afterlife
Life after Death	76% of Americans Believe
Heaven	85% of Americans Believe
Hell	66% of Americans Believe

Another CBS news poll asked more than a thousand adults in America about belief in the afterlife. Three out of four Americans believe in the existence of heaven or hell. When asked where they thought they would spend the afterlife, 82 percent of those polled believed they would spend it in heaven. How can this majority opinion be reconciled when humanism, evolution, and secularism are institutionally mainstream?

The Bible says that God is never without a witness to His existence

But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.  They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them.  For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.

Romans 1:18-20 by saying God has not left Himself without testimony and that if anyone choses to refuse to believe in Him it is because they are suppressing the three special faculties mankind has and not other species does:

Romans 1:18-21

Things Man has to suppress in order to not believe in God
1. Special Cognition	Man’s ability to observe, and marvel at the beauty, design, complexity and vastness of the universe which no other species can
2. Moral Conscience	The Universal innate sense of right and wrong that affirms the dictates of the 10 commandments even in cultures where the Bible is not available
3. Transcendent Spirituality	The Universal sense that their is a God, heaven and hell

Romans 1:18 says that those who refuse to acknowledge God as creator or as deity are “suppressing the truth” in unrighteousness. The Greek word “suppress” is “katecho” which means to restrain, hold back, or push down. It implies that if people refuse to believe after everything that their cognitive reason knows, their moral conscience demonstrates, and their inner spirit tells them that they demonstrate “willful unbelief”.

On the other hand, it implies that all three of the God-given instincts are witnesses that God is not far from any one of us and that if we reach out for Him we can find Him.

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. ²⁵ And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. ²⁶ From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. ²⁷ God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 

Acts 17:24-28

General revelation refers to God’s communication of Himself through nature and the human conscience which God uses to prod mankind to seek Him in faith. Special revelation is God’s specific and supernatural communication, primarily through the Bible and the person of Jesus Christ. 

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ¹² Then you will call on me and come and pray to me,
and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 
¹⁴ I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, 

Jeremiah 29:11-14

ThinkCube Truth Veracity Grid

1. Have I considered the issue carefully and honestly with an open mind?
2. Does what I think conform to the rules of logic and avoid contradiction?
3. Are my conclusions free from bias and presuppositions?

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