By Kelly Epperson
During World War II, the Nazis murdered approximately 6 million Jews and anywhere from 5 to 11 million others, including people with mental and physical disabilities, Polish civilians, Romanians, and political and religious opponents. Their methods included slave labor at concentration camps, starvation, mass shootings, and gas chambers, where the victims were locked into a “shower” before being doused in toxic gas. Rudolf Höß, a commandant at one of the extermination camps, said that “the foul and nauseating stench from the continuous burning of bodies permeated the entire area…”(Nuremburg Trials, 1946) What we know as the Holocaust is one of the largest genocides recorded in history.
But I can’t say it was morally wrong.
While a large number of people would be shocked at that statement, that group does not include those who believe in moral relativism, which is the belief that there is no absolute and universal moral standard by which to judge others. According to one professor in upstate New York, “10 to 20 percent of his students could not bring themselves to criticize the Nazi extermination of Europe’s Jews” because “no culture can be judged from the outside and no individual can challenge the moral worldview of another.”(Leo, 2002) At this point, you’re probably asking yourself, “How did we get here?” The answer is simple.
We left God.
We “exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped the creature rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25 NKJV). You see, if God created us in His image, and with that gave us a sense of morality and right and wrong, we are not free to do what we please. We have an obligation to live within the moral boundaries established by our Supreme Creator, and He will hold us accountable for how we live our lives. Alternately, if there is no God, then we do not possess a soul, and nothing is eternal. The only thing that separates us from plants and animals is time. Our existence here is by chance, and there is no purpose for it. If we have no purpose in life, there is no absolute moral code. Thus, “good” and “evil” are concepts that humans have fabricated, either individually or as a society. They have no authority over our lives, and they are constantly changing. Consequently, we get statements from people like Peter Singer, Princeton University Bioethics professor, who said, “If we can put aside these emotionally moving but strictly irrelevant aspects of the killing of a baby we can see that the grounds for not killing persons do not apply to newborn infants”(Singer, 1993) and, “The notion that human life is sacred just because it is human life is medieval”(Singer, 1995). When human life no longer is sacred, can we really say that murder and genocide are morally wrong?
The reality is that you would be hard-pressed to find a person who does not have some conviction of right and wrong. Even Richard Dawkins, one of the world’s most vitriolic atheists, is a law-abiding citizen that believes in morality. If there is no God, however, then my morals are just as valid as yours. One can believe that lying is okay in some cases (like Peter Singer), that bestiality is acceptable (again, like Peter Singer), and that the murdering of infants should be a matter of parental choice (You guessed it- just like Peter Singer).
In the end, though, we cannot have it both ways. God exists, or He does not. Morality exists, or it does not. If not, every person is free to do “what is right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). If we are made in the image of God, then we must love and serve Him as our creator. If it’s all relative, then I fervently pray I am not a victim of choice.
Don’t believe that could happen in the U.S.? It already has…. over 50 million times. Read about it in the sequel to this article: “The Voice of My Children’s Blood”
