On Truth and Falsity

                       On Systems of Morals and Ethics

The skeptics contend, even to this day, that because different ethnic groups and races practice different systems of morals and customs, then all customs and morals must be equal, and therefore, no one can judge the truth about what is good and what is evil. They ridicule the dogmatists for even attempting to speculate about what could be good morals and what could be bad morals. Because they believe that goodness and evil are equal to each other, and therefore, do not exist, they ridiculed Democritus for his theory of atoms as also being something that they thought cannot exist. But Democritus only sought to enlarge human knowledge about hidden things which would also have the effect of helping humans to discover the truth about hidden morals. Democritus had the last laugh on the skeptics when science discovered that atoms do exist. The difference between good and bad morals can also be hidden within human consciousness. But the good dogmatists attempt to discover and reveal the truth that good morals and bad morals actually exists. pb. OP ps.59-63.

The Bible (KJB) informs that when God created humans He gave them a conscience in their consciousness so that when evil came into their existence, they would be able to discover the difference between good morals acts and evil acts. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 2:17 (KJB). But evil proved to have such a powerful influence on the human conscience that many people began to practice immoral acts as if no difference existed between good and evil. Romans 19-32 (KJB). But God also exerted His influence in human history to keep alive among some people the knowledge of Him and His goodness that He puts into humans when He creates them. At the time of the worldwide flood, God had only one man, Noah, and his family who retained their knowledge that a decided difference exists between good systems and evil systems.

The entire history of the human race demonstrates that God has used His influence on the goodness that He puts into the inner beings of every human to cause certain humans to search the consciousness of humanity to try to discover the difference between good and evil. God gave Israel His prophets for that purpose. God caused the influence of His written Word and Christianity on Western civilization that elevated it to a much higher degree of the knowledge of the difference between good and evil. Many leaders and groups of people have practiced very cruel and evil acts, but among the general population, the knowledge of the difference between good and evil has been much better than that among the other peoples of the world. Western civilization has caused progress in the entire world toward better systems of morality over immorality. Such evils as slavery, human sacrifice, and ignorance have been eliminated from much of the world through the influence of Western civilization. Western civilization has established many good systems such as hospitals, better systems of education, and better systems of justice. Sadly though, war has not been eliminated from Western civilization. Western civilization has even progressed to the establishment of free societies where every individual has equal value and can be free in his conscience to think and express whatever he believes, and can do whatever he pleases as long as he obeys the law. But within the last 200 years, certain atheistic philosophers have influenced the world to return to such evil systems as cruelty, tyranny, and control of the human mind.

Even before God called the Apostle Paul to bring the gospel to Western civilization, God had raised up certain dogmatic philosophers to search the human conscience to try to find the difference between goodness and evil. Acts 16:6-11 (KJB). The ancient Greeks and Romans had a natural inclination toward systems of curiosity and wonder as the Apostle Paul discovered when he visited Athens. Acts 17:18-34 (KJB). Socrates, by his use of his dialectical method, sought to elicit truth and eliminate falsity from the human conscience. By the use of his method, Socrates arrived at the conclusion that certain persons had a talent for being virtuous whereas most people did not. In other words, Socrates realized that certain persons were better at listening to their conscience which told them the difference between morality and immorality. Many of the ancient philosophers seemed to have that same talent. Western civilization seemed to already be able to make some progress toward better societies even before Christianity arrived.

The skeptics unwittingly admitted that the Greek and Roman civilizations had attained a higher degree of moral conscience when they wrote that they had proscribed such evils as incest, adultery, and human sacrifice that was openly practiced by other ethnic groups. Perhaps, because of their higher moral standards, God sent His gospel to Western civilization because those people were far more likely to receive its faith and its excellent moral standards than other peoples of the world. The fact that God has used Western civilization to progress the world toward better systems of morality provides evidence that a difference between moral systems and immoral systems actually exists.