Dennis Prager on Judeo-Christian Values
Category: Faith...
Posted Tuesday, January 25, 2005 at 06:40 PM [GMT-6]

Dennis Prager is writing a series of columns on Judeo-Christian values and in his third one, which I just found, he addresses the origin of moral values.

He lists four problems with the belief held by many today (and, indeed, throughout history) that reason alone ("divorced from God") will lead to moral behavior:

1. The first is that reason is amoral. Reason is only a tool and, therefore, can just as easily argue for evil as for good.


2. ...we are incapable of morally functioning on the basis of reason alone. Our passions, psychology, values, beliefs, emotions and experiences all influence the ways in which even the most rational person determines what is moral and whether to act on it.


3. ...the belief in reason alone is itself based on an irrational belief -- that people are basically good. You have to believe that people are basically good in order to believe that human reason will necessarily lead to moral conclusions.


4. ...even when reason does lead to a moral conclusion, it in no way compels acting on that conclusion.

Prager's observation in point #3 ties in especially well with our church's current study of the Biblical truths about spiritual warfare. Dr. D. L. Lowrie's message last night, entitled "Victory Over the Flesh," was taken from Galatians 5:16-25. In this passage, Paul makes the point that apart from "the Spirit," (that is, the Holy Spirit, given to each believer at the point of salvation) the flesh (that is, our tendency to do wrong at every turn) is the dominant force in our lives. We cannot, in our own power and through our own determination, defeat this force. We are ultimately helpless before it.

Thankfully, the story doesn't end there, of course. Every believer has been given victory, and not just the ultimate victory of life in heaven after death, but victory over those powers and influences in life that would otherwise keep us from make morally correct choices.

A tip o'the hat to Isaac Schrödinger for the link to Prager's article.

Technorati tags: Spiritual Warfare; Bible Study; Christianity