Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Gen 1:26-27
For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
Rom 1:20
Each of you must respect his mother and father
Lev 19:3
When you look at wolves and their ability to adopt into their group while wild dogs in Africa only accept members of their family, a lot of behaviour is pre-programmed.
As babies we are programmed to love our parents. You can see how strong this is in adopted children seeking out their parents, like they are lost individuals who need to have this connection. As a father I observed this immediate bonding, one of my daughters so strongly before they could speak would try and stop me showing affection to my wife. It was not something they chose, it was a drive built into them.
In a discussion with an atheist about objective and subjective morality, I took the position as nothing is provable in the ultimate sense nothing is objective except by faith and belief. A very evangelical position was that believing in God was the foundation of morality and fear of judgement and guilt generated by knowing Gods revelation. The outworking of this is a lack of belief in God would make one immoral and corrupt and able to do anything. It struck me this is clearly wrong. Most of society does not really know theology or faith or a moral set of rules, but rather are born into a social context and work within this. Their behaviour is molded by the groups they associate with, and its resulting guilt or bad behaviour.
I concluded that though morality is subjective philosophically, it is hard wired into us as humans, social beings. Freuds ideas about ego, super ego I think are wrong, it is how we are wired to work as social creatures. Gods warning about sin, is sin destroys our wiring and causing internal conflicts that will make us collapse. So when an atheist wants to avoid guilt through their faith, ie rejecting a God of judgement, they are trying to resolve the wrong problem. They need to make peace with their sin and resolve their inner debt and guilt, and then they will find what they need. God is the clear source of this resolution.
This also explains why North Korea went so badly wrong, by rejecting christianity and believing you can construct a social order based on politics, which works against the moral programming of their society, creates an unbelievably cruel and dysfunctional group that will never resolve.
Jordan Peterson interestingly has concluded looking at things psychologically people work better living like God exists and morality works, which underpins our social programming and why Jesus is the truth and the key to life itself. God bless you
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Gen 1:26-27
For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
Rom 1:20
Each of you must respect his mother and father
Lev 19:3
When you look at wolves and their ability to adopt into their group while wild dogs in Africa only accept members of their family, a lot of behaviour is pre-programmed.
As babies we are programmed to love our parents. You can see how strong this is in adopted children seeking out their parents, like they are lost individuals who need to have this connection. As a father I observed this immediate bonding, one of my daughters so strongly before they could speak would try and stop me showing affection to my wife. It was not something they chose, it was a drive built into them.
In a discussion with an atheist about objective and subjective morality, I took the position as nothing is provable in the ultimate sense nothing is objective except by faith and belief. A very evangelical position was that believing in God was the foundation of morality and fear of judgement and guilt generated by knowing Gods revelation. The outworking of this is a lack of belief in God would make one immoral and corrupt and able to do anything. It struck me this is clearly wrong. Most of society does not really know theology or faith or a moral set of rules, but rather are born into a social context and work within this. Their behaviour is molded by the groups they associate with, and its resulting guilt or bad behaviour.
I concluded that though morality is subjective philosophically, it is hard wired into us as humans, social beings. Freuds ideas about ego, super ego I think are wrong, it is how we are wired to work as social creatures. Gods warning about sin, is sin destroys our wiring and causing internal conflicts that will make us collapse. So when an atheist wants to avoid guilt through their faith, ie rejecting a God of judgement, they are trying to resolve the wrong problem. They need to make peace with their sin and resolve their inner debt and guilt, and then they will find what they need. God is the clear source of this resolution.
This also explains why North Korea went so badly wrong, by rejecting christianity and believing you can construct a social order based on politics, which works against the moral programming of their society, creates an unbelievably cruel and dysfunctional group that will never resolve.
Jordan Peterson interestingly has concluded looking at things psychologically people work better living like God exists and morality works, which underpins our social programming and why Jesus is the truth and the key to life itself. God bless you
