A Question of Morality

I was watching an interview with British philosopher and Anti-Theist Colin McGinn, and he brought up an interesting argument against morality and ethics as proof for the existence of god. Personally, I consider myself an Agnostic who has currently chosen to identify as an Atheist, but please understand that I am not an Anti-Theist like Mr. McGinn. Although from what I can tell, we agree on a great many things, including having an openness to religious argument and a respect for the other side of the argument, we disagree in that he believes that religion is inherently dangerous and causes more harm than good. Though I agree that organized religion CAN and HAS caused suffering, I believe that is a problem with people, not with religion in general.

The argument Mr. McGinn brings up, which I have always struggled with is, the question of where morality and ethics come from. Most religious people would say that morality comes from god. For instance, we can probably all agree that stealing is wrong. Well, why is it wrong? It's wrong because god says that it is wrong. God commanded that it is wrong. But let's look at this a different way. What if I were I to say that it's right to murder? You would disagree, because of course murder is wrong. Then I would say, but god says it's right to murder. That would not convince you that it's right to murder. If god says something is right which isn't right, then god is wrong. God can only reflect what's right in his commandments. It IS wrong to steal, and it IS wrong to murder, so god says that it's wrong, not the other way around. God doesn't make it wrong by saying it. It is inherently wrong on it's own.

This struck me as an incredibly coherent, logical argument against the morality-as-proof-of-god argument. Of course, in the spirit of glasnost, I always welcome other opinions, as I am constantly questioning myself and tend to grab onto ideas without thinking through them completely. So please speak up and speak your mind.