I introduced an essay in the last blog post–“Unspeakable Ethics, Natural Law” by Arthur Leff, Yale law professor. Here’s a non-Christian who is very uncomfortable about the possible lack of God and what that does to the existence of morals and natural law. His point, which I covered in the previous post, was that without God we all become “gods” who set the standards in our own minds. A scary proposition, indeed.

As a coninuation, I’d like to explore the rest of his essay. Most of Leff’s essay consists of a review of all the unsuccessful attempts to establish an objective moral order on a foundation of human construction (taking God’s place) – command of the sovereign (a king), the majority of the voters, the principle of utility, the Supreme Court interpretations,… Every alternative rests ultimately on human authority. Every system fails the test of “the grand sez who,” according to Leff. In other words, why should we listen to anyone else tell us what’s right. What gives them the superior position to legislate morality for all of us?

Here is the end of his essay: “All I can say is this: it looks as if we are all we have. Given what we know about ourselves, and each other, this is an extraordinarily unappetizing prospect. Neither reason, nor love, nor even terror, seems to have worked to make us “good.” As things stand now, everything is up for grabs. Nevertheless: napalm in babies is bad. Starving the poor is wicked. Buying and selling each other is depraved… There is in the world such a thing as evil. [All together now: ] Sez who? God help us.” Powerful words. There needs to be a God to give morality a sure foundation.