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✪𝙉𝙤𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙭𝙭𝙞𝙣𝙜✪
If you choose the first option—that morals are good because God commands them—this implies that morals have no standard other than God’s will, rendering them subjective and imaginary with no real truth. This would mean that if God commands killing, then killing becomes good, and if God forbids honesty and mercy, these virtues would become ugly.
If you choose the second option—that God commands morals because they are inherently good—this suggests that morals are independent of God and judge His choices, contradicting the completeness of divine power and knowledge. This implies that a higher standard than God exists, and we can recognize these standards without needing God, thus negating the necessity of a Creator for the existence of morality.
This argument can also be applied to the issue of knowledge. It asks: Why is something right? Is it because God wants it to be right, or does God want it because it is inherently right? And why is truth true? Is it because God wants it to be, or does God want it because it is true?
This argument is invalid for objecting to the inference of values and principles based on the existence of God Almighty because it is based on multiple misconceptions about God and His relationship with the universe. It includes several fallacies and relies on the Greek perception of God, which should not be generalized to all religions. These misconceptions are due to three fundamental mistakes:
The first mistake: It is based on a wrong perception of God’s relationship with creation. God Almighty is the creator of everything, whether tangible, like mountains and trees, or moral concepts, like mercy, compassion, honesty, and the ugliness of lying. Nothing exists outside of God’s creation.
Goodness, ugliness, justice, and injustice are all part of God’s creation. They do not exist independently of Him. He created truth as goodness and lies and injustice as ugliness. He also created the human mind to recognize good and evil.
All these things—good, evil, mercy, lust, envy, charity, pride, and generosity—along with the human mind that perceives them, are created by God Almighty. Nothing exists outside His power, will, and control.
If God wanted to change these concepts, no one could prevent Him, but He does not do so because of His perfect wisdom.
The second mistake: It ignores the divine attribute of wisdom. Those who make this argument treat God as if He creates and commands solely by will and power, neglecting wisdom. This perception suggests that God could command pure evil, which is incorrect.
In reality, God’s absolute perfection in wisdom, knowledge, power, and will prevents Him from commanding pure evil. Muslims believe that God only commands what is good and forbids what is evil. (Side note: God created evil but does not command people to do evil.)
The third mistake: It confuses the concepts of creation and command. God Almighty created everything, both good and bad, but He only commands what is good and forbids what is ugly. The scope of His commands is narrower than the scope of His creation. The creation includes what God commands and what He does not command.
As a result of these mistakes, the argument is based on several logical fallacies:
The first fallacy: A false paradigm, where the issue is portrayed inaccurately, requiring Muslims to discuss it within that flawed framework.
The second fallacy: Deceptive possibilities, where the debater limits the possible answers to a question to a specific number and asks the opponent to choose from those options. The correct answer may lie in another possibility not mentioned.
The argument wrongly assumes that God can act purely by will without wisdom and that the criterion of good and evil is beyond God’s creation and power. It limits the possibilities to either God wanting morals only by His will or because they are good.
This limitation is incorrect unless the actor lacks wisdom and acts solely by will. In reality, the criterion of good and evil, as well as actions, are not independent of God. God does not act without divine wisdom, and the human mind that perceives these concepts is also God’s creation.
There is only one logical possibility: God commands good deeds because He created them as good, and His wisdom only commands what is good. He forbids ugly deeds because He made them ugly, and His wisdom dictates not commanding what is ugly.
Based on this clarification, the question poses a false dichotomy. There is a third possibility consistent with God’s relationship with the universe and His perfection, as explained.
If someone asks why God made good a measure of good morals and ugliness a measure of ugly morals, the question itself is sophistic and has no value. It can be applied to anything in existence. For example: Why did God make existence and non-existence? Why did He make big things big and small things small? Why did He make white white and black black? Why did He make knowledge knowledge and ignorance ignorance?
These questions, when considered, are sophistic and not based on correct foundations.
The straightforward answer is that God, characterized by absolute perfection, created everything according to His standards, laws, and wisdom to achieve the purposes He desires. Human beings may or may not understand these purposes. If God willed, He could have created the universe differently, based on other laws and standards.
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