how do we know right and wrong?

some things are really wrong?

We all make ethical judgments. We believe some things are wrong and others are right, and we can get very upset when we see unethical behaviour cause harm and distress. We have no doubt that Adolf Hitler was wrong in his "final solution" and in World War II, or that the behaviour of pedophiles, serial killers and rapists is utterly wrong. But what makes such things wrong?

evolutionary ethics

One view is that ethics are a result of evolution, that our communities have evolved sanctions against behaviour that is harmful to the common good. But what do we conclude if a community chooses a warlike or inhumane course because it thinks that will be successful? If this behaviour works out well, does that thereby make it ethically "right"? Would Hitler have been "right" if he had won the war? I don't think we can live with such a view of ethics.

In his book "Peace Child", Don Richardson tells of tribes in Irian Jaya who valued treacherous and dishonest behaviour against neighbouring tribes. On some occasions, in a process they called "fattening the pig for the slaughter" a man would make friends with a member of another tribe and continue in friendship for a time, and then kill him and eat him. It is hard to see how evolutionery ethics can be applied here.

objective ethics

The alternative view of ethics is that right and wrong are as fundamental to the truth of the universe as is gravity, except we have a choice whether we obey the ethics or not.

This of course requires explanation, and the most common explanation is that right and wrong originate with God. This still leaves questions - Which god? Does God command things because they are right, or are they right because he commends them? - but believing in God does provide an objective basis for right and wrong.

what will we choose?

One thing is for sure. We will continue to make ethical judgments, but on what basis? If we choose the utilitarian view of ethics, it is likely that, more and more, people will be inclined to disregard them if they can see an advantage in it. The only way out of this dilemma seems to be for society to believe that ethics are actually "true". This after all has been the view throughout most of history.

But if that is the case, where does this truth come from? Traditionally, ethics have been seen as originating with God, and it is hard to see any other source. Thus we may have to choose between believing in a god, or in ethics that are subjective.

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