There are so many ways to summarize the moral argument for God’s existence that I have a hard time boiling it down to just one or two. The most concise summary of the deductive moral argument for God’s existence could be stated as follows: “If objective morality exists (and it does), then God exists.”

This summary is so concise, however, that it does little more than state the logic of the argument. Why think that only God can explain morality? Here is a concise summary that also attempts to explain the connection in a bit more detail: “If God didn’t exist, there would be no moral laws and no moral obligations. But all of us know that moral laws exist and that we have an obligation to obey those laws, so God must exist. Laws require law-givers and obligations require persons to be obligated to. God is the source of moral values and the One to whom we are obligated.”

My favorite way of summarizing the abductive version of the moral argument is as follows:

  • For there to be moral laws, there must be a moral law-giver.
  • For moral laws to be objective, the moral law-giver must transcend human beings.
  • For there to be moral obligations, there must be a person to whom we are obligated.
  • For our moral choices to have moral significance, there must be a moral judge.
  • For there to be a moral judgment, there must be an afterlife in which to experience it.

Another way of putting it is that “God is the best explanation for our moral experience.” How so?

  • The existence of objective moral truths is grounded in a transcendent God whose very nature is pure goodness.
  • We have knowledge of these moral truths because God made us in His likeness complete with moral intuitions.
  • We have moral duties because God has commanded to us to act in ways consistent with His purpose for creating us.
  • We experience moral guilt because we have broken trust with a personal God by rejecting the moral obligations He has given us.
  • We desire moral accountability because we are made in the image of a just God.

Take your pick!