Version 1

[ScrappyMarcus]

Atheist Argument

Version 1
(Version 1 of the "Euthro Dilemma")

Believers say God is the source of morality. But this creates a fatal dilemma. Are things good because God commands them, or does God command them because they are good?

If things are good only because God commands them, then morality is arbitrary. God could declare cruelty, slavery, or genocide “good,” and they would be — simply by His decree. That strips morality of any real meaning.

If, on the other hand, God commands things because they are good, then morality exists independently of God. In that case, God is not the source of goodness but merely a messenger pointing to a higher moral law.

Either horn of the dilemma undermines the claim that God grounds morality. Either morality is arbitrary, or it is independent of God. And if it is independent, then we don’t need God to explain it. Morality makes more sense as a human and rational construct — empathy, reason, and cooperation shaped by evolution and society — than as the command of a deity.