The final area of internal critique of the materialistic worldview comes via the problem of evil. Intimately tied to the subject of objective morality, this issue for the Materialist is seemingly insurmountable given their foundational presuppositions.
First, the recognition that evil does exist implies that there is an objective standard by which to call something or some act evil. But, with the absence of an objective moral standard and with the inability to account for or even posit universal, abstract and invariant standards of morality, the materialistic argument is reduced to nonsense.
Next, given the popular assumption that man is simply the product of random/chance processes, there is also a dismissal of any intrinsic self-worth regarding the nature of man.
Moreover, given the subjectivity of the materialistic worldview, that which is deemed today as evil, could likewise be deemed, or could have been deemed as morally appropriate or even as something to be sought for by the mass of humanity during different epics of history. Slavery, which has been practiced in all cultures throughout known history, has only recently been shunned via the majority of civilized cultures?
But, what makes modern standards more appropriate then past or possible future standards? Almost all cultures would call the murder of infant’s evil, yet it is practiced daily in all of Western and most of Eastern culture.
But is this even considered to be evil in a materialistic universe, given the already cited lack of objectivism needed to call something defiantly wrong? The very fact that Materialists posit that there are objective evils betrays their most basic assumptions about man and his origins, as well as the existence of transcendent law and objective standards. Thus, the very proclamation of the problem of evil assumes the Christian worldview, while demonstrating that their worldview cannot answer the most vital questions of human experience.
https://wp.me/p1id5H-mW
