Agathos - an argument from morality

Why God exists as the moral law giver.

Cataphatic Moral Argument

  • Premise 1: Objective moral values and duties exist.

  • Premise 2: The best explanation for the existence of objective moral values and duties is God.

  • Conclusion: Therefore, God exists.

Apophatic Moral Argument

  1. Evil is a privation of goodness. Just as darkness is a privation of light, evil is a privation of goodness. The absence of darkness is not necessarily light, similarly, the absence of evil is not necessarily goodness.

  2. Therefore, since evil is a privation of goodness, the existence of evil requires the existence of goodness.

  3. Suffering is a type of moral evil.

  4. Conclusion: There must be an absolute standard that defines goodness, from which all privations constitute moral evils. This standard must be unchanging, infinite, eternal, and absolutely good.