Christianity

Diversity of Religion is best thought about as a maze. Moreland explains mazes have

various paths heading in different directions, some run parallel to each other for long stretches,

and some come to a dead-end quickly. The person who enters the maze intends to choose the

path that leads to the center or their religious identity. The path I have chosen is Christianity. I

will discuss the development of my belief in Christianity by discussing the existence of the

universe and moral absolutes.1

Anyone who has ever looked up at the sky on a night or watched the live feed from the

International Space Station will acknowledge the existence of the universe. The argument

surrounding the existence of the universe centers around how the universe came into existence.

There is an argument that the universe does not have a starting point and that it exists on an

infinite plane. The issue with this argument is the inability to cross an actual infinite. Imagine a

number line, the present day is zero and the number line continues infinitely in both directions. If

you wanted to count to the present day from infinite negative, you will not be able to reach zero

because doing so would require passing an actual infinite which is impossible. Accepting the

reality that the universe had a beginning brings us to how did it begin an argument. The Big

Bang Theory is commonly recognized as the most logical scientific explanation of how the

universe came to be. The fault I find in this argument is the idea that something can be created

out of nothing. If this notion was accurate then why are people or animals just appearing out of

nothing and into existence without a cause? Understanding the absurdity of this thought helps us

understand that even quantum events have causes, some of which we are not aware of yet. This

can be boiled down to the old argument about the chicken and the egg, Moreland says “a
1
Moreland, J.P. “The Question of God Part I”. Love Your God with All Your Mind – The Role of Reason in the Life of
the Soul, Revised and Updated Edition, NavPress, 2012
possessor of existence who first had to receive existence from something else to give it to

another” leads us to understand the need for something to exist outside of time and space.2 To

further this point take into account event-event causation versus agent causation. Event-event

causation is the understanding that “the cause is an event, the cause exists earlier than and

simultaneous with the effect, and the transfer of power from the cause to the effect is a change

requiring time.”3 Since we have established that the first event was caused by something outside

of time and space we must deduce that the first event could not be a result of event-event

causation and instead is due to agent causation. Because agent causation is not the result of a

temporal prior event but instead is a conscious person spontaneously and directly acting it is

reasonable to conclude that agent causation was what brought on the first event. With this

understanding, “the most reasonable explanation for the beginning of the universe is that it was

the result of a free act of will by an immaterial, conscious agent who can exist outside of space

and time.”4

Lawton writes “Knowing something is true is different from believing it to be true;

knowledge is objective, but belief is subjective.”5 This idea parallels that of moral absolutes

being known truths and thus objective as opposed to moral beliefs which would be considered

subjective. If someone disputes the existence of moral absolutes in favor of moral relativism

their argument can quickly be negated by simply discovering what they value and then offering a

scenario where what they value is eliminated or damaged and you will see them sway. For

instance, if someone claiming moral relativism cares deeply about domestic abuse and you tell a

2
Moreland, J.P. “The Question of God Part I”, Love Your God with All Your Mind – The Role of Reason in the Life of
the Soul. Revised and Updated, NavPress, 2012, p169
3
Moreland, J.P. “The Question of God Part I”, Love Your God with All Your Mind – The Role of Reason in the Life of
the Soul. Revised and Updated, NavPress, 2012, p170
4
Moreland, J.P. “The Question of God Part I”, Love Your God with All Your Mind – The Role of Reason in the Life of
the Soul. Revised and Updated, NavPress, 2012, p171
5
Lawton, Graham, “I Believe: Your Personal Guidebook to Reality”, New Scientist, v3015, 4 April 2015
story about how you enjoy watching movies where a spouse is violent with their partner and how

you often act out those scenes on your partner just for fun, you will see a visceral reaction from

them. Everyone knows domestic violence is wrong so the person claiming moral relativism is

only morally relative in areas that are convenient to them but when things they are passionate

about are challenged their moral absolutes surface.

Now that the existence of moral absolutes has been established, we must accept that

living in line with these absolutes is inevitable. If one actively chooses to live an entirely

egocentric life outside of morality and without virtue, they are attempting to live outside of

reality itself and they will flounder. Regardless of what theism you follow you are shaped by the

virtues and moral beliefs that are ingrained into your very being. Everyone would agree that

torturing a puppy for sport is immoral and could be a sign of mental instability but why? We cry

out for justice when injustice occurs but where does our concept of justice come from? We

demand equality for all people but where is this concept rooted? The answer is both simple and

complex. When God created humankind, he ingrained a moral compass into our being but

because we live in a fallen world and since we have free will, we can choose to ignore, question,

and corrupt that compass with our worldly ideas. This is not to say that the internal moral

compass is gone from our person, it may be buried deep within and hidden away but it is still

there. Therefore, even a hardened criminal can be broken down and remorse can flow from their

eyes after years and years of trying to run from their moral compass.

God has been there from the beginning and he will continue to be among us for eternity

just like that nagging moral compass that sits deep in the pit of your stomach and helps you

navigate the world. Understanding how the universes exist and knowing the existence of moral

absolutes has helped me to better develop and deepen my understanding of Christianity and my
belief in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. I will end with this, we cannot see or measure dark

mass or dark matter, but the scientific world does not doubt that it exists, because without it the

universe cannot exist. So, if we can believe in an unmeasurable and invisible force like dark

matter or dark mass without any tangible proof it exists what makes it so difficult to believe in

the existence of a purposeful creator that exists outside of time and space and can put all of this

into motion. It is not difficult really, it is after all how and why we were created, to have a

relationship with our creator.