For centuries s now, theists and creationists have been running out of room to maneuver as phenomena that traditionally required supernatural explanations become lucidly explained in the domain of science. Consequently, creationists and theists have realized that they can never win factual arguments with scientists, thus they have changed tactics. Instead of using God to explain natural phenomena, creationists have construed their science-like universe referred to as the intelligence design , which they use to argue that religion, thus God is indispensible in morality. Conversely, scientist have continually insisted that God , or any other supernatural being is not a precondition for morality, and that morality is innate, being fashioned by human experience over time. These significantly different viewpoints have fueled a heated debate between the creationists and scientists pertinent to the role of God in dictating morality among human beings, as well as different works exploring the subject. But can there be morality without God?
The article, “Morality without God” by Frans de Waal explores the case for morality without God. According to Waal (2010), the debate of morality with/without God is centuries old . Waal notes that morality with/without God was the main subject of debate during the times of Hieronymous Bosch, and ranges on to date (Waal, 2010). Waal explains the creationists view that God is a precondition for morality, and cites creationists such as Reverend Al Sharpton and Dostoevsky’s Ivan Karamazov, who argued that there has to be a force that helps human to distinguish between right and wrong. However, is of a different opinion, that humanity, including self control is built into us, thus we human beings do not require a deity in order to be moral. According to Waal, humans must have worried about the functioning of their societies long before the current religions arose, thus humans did not and do not need religion or a God to be moral(Waal, 2010). Further, Waal explores the principles of social cohesiveness among our closest relatives and ancestors, the primates, who have a similar albeit smaller brain structure as human beings. The author notes that the primates, like human beings have genuine altruism and empathy and genuinely help their kind even when there is no forthcoming reward. Further, using the inequity aversion theory, the author explains how an animal will refuse to accept a deal that oppresses its fellow, showing that even animals will have a sense of fairness. Using these explanations, the author explains that morality in human beings is built into them through a top-down process of experience in his social setting over time. As such, human morality is an elaborate system of justification, monitoring and punishment, thus does not necessarily require God to function (Waal, 2010).
The main question that need to be asked pertinent to this issue is whether man can be moral without God. This question will help in exploring the importance (or lack thereof) of God in establishing morality in human beings. This will help explore whether man can be moral without God, thus help establishing whether God is a pre-condition for morality.
