If atheists can't ground morality, can
they be consistently pro-life? Well, if
the question is whether atheists can
oppose abortion, then of course the
answer is yes. They can, in fact, fight
against abortion laws, for example. But if
the question is whether an atheist can
ground the claim that abortion is
objectively wrong, well, then the answer
is gonna be no, and the reason is simple.
If you don't believe in God, then there's
no law giver in the universe to provide
an objective standard of morality that
exists out there that we can judge our
own actions by. And so if an atheist said
abortion was wrong, they could only say
it was wrong for them. The
wrongness of abortion would only be
wrong because they thought it was wrong
not because it was actually wrong. Now
this is called
moral relativism, and it's the idea that
morals — what's right and wrong — are
relative to each individual. Now, it turns
out, though, that the problem is 
actually a lot worse than I've stated
because if there's no God, not only would
abortion not be objectively wrong, but
nothing would be objectively wrong — not
theft, not lying, not even murder or rape.
Every action is ultimately moral because,
from the atheist's perspective, there's no
divine law giver to set the standard. Now
notice, I'm not saying that an atheist
can't be moral or can't think that those
actions are wrong. In fact, many atheists
do think they're wrong. What I'm claiming
here is that an atheist couldn't explain
why those actions are wrong in an
objective sense. They could say, according
to their own inner standard, they
believe abortion and rape are wrong, but
if they move, for example, to a country
where there are people there who
considered rape and abortion to be
perfectly moral, then to what standard
would the atheist then appeal to explain
why those behaviors are wrong for those
people in that country. All the atheist
could say is this, "Well I think these
things are wrong,"
and the people in the country would
reply, "Well, we disagree. Those actions are
right in our eyes," and so since they're
the majority, then of course their ways
win.
In other words, might would then make
right. In fact, I remember one time I was
on a university campus, and I was
involved in a protest against abortion,
and I got into a conversation with this
guy who was an atheist, and he told me, of
course, that he thought abortion was
morally permissible. He didn't think
abortion was wrong because he said, "Well,
after all, there's no God. And so if
there's no God, there's no one to say
that it's wrong." And I said, "I agree with
you. You're right. If there's no God, then
you're right. Abortion is not wrong." But I
said, "Nothing then is wrong. Every
behavior would then be permissible."
And his response was, "You're right, I
totally agree." So I was thinking, this is
great.
He's totally agreeing with me. I'm gonna
go further with this point. Then I said,
"You know what, not only is nothing right
or wrong if there's no God, but there's
nothing of value in the universe either.
We're all stardust, and we have no value
and meaning." And then one of the most
unsettling experiences happened to me at
that point. He turned to me and he said, "You
know what, you're right. I'm not worth
anything. I don't believe I'm valuable at
all, and that's why I've often considered
killing myself. And I was like, oh man!
I'm like, "Okay, I take back everything I
said!" Now I didn't, of course. I actually
took some time to talk to him. I took
down his phone number, actually I've been
in contact with him for several years
now just to make sure he's okay and to
try to, you know, share with him, of course,
the truth. But again, notice in this case
this atheist was being consistent. He
couldn't deny God exists and believe
abortion was objectively wrong. But as we
agreed, if there's no God, then nothing is
right or wrong. All you have is
individual preferences about what you
like and don't like. And so while I'm
happy to partner with atheists who want
to help fight abortion, I don't think
they're being consistent with their worldview.
