In a purely material world there can be no progress, no “better.” Physical things cannot experience progress; only change. Progress implies a trajectory toward a purposeful end, with that end being better than all previous states. Only a transcendent source such as God could invest the world with teleological purpose. If there is no God there can be no end, and thus no progress, and no way to measure “better.”

 

Indeed, the concept of “better” is an arbitrary fiction without God. In a purely material world change cannot be better; only different. One form/state of matter is no better than another form/state of matter. Everything just is. How is it, then, that we are able to identify certain changes as good and better (non-physical judgments)? Such identification requires an objective, transcendent standard by which such progress can be measured. Such a standard cannot be found in, or reduced to physical parts. Only God is sufficient to ground that sort of a standard.

 

Technically speaking we can’t even determine what is practical if God does not exist, because to determine what is practical requires that we know what is better than other things.