Without God, Do We All "Bleed The Same"?- Introduction

Without God, the war against racism makes no sense at all. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. grounded his fight and mission in the fact that God exists, because he knew that without God, so many foundations of such a fight are nonexistent. I was recently made aware of this beautiful song by Mandisa (featuring TobyMac and Kirk Franklin) addressing the tensions that still plague America today. Please take the time to listen, then read below to see how nothing that moved your heart in this video can be explained unless Christianity is the true worldview.

What a beautiful song that should express the heart and desire of every human. However, unless the view promoted by the song has a foundation in reality, then our emotions are merely playing a trick on us to believe that something is true and noble when those are merely illusions. There are several foundations that disappear if Christianity is false, but I want to focus on three today:

Intrinsic and Equal Human Value

There must be a ground for claiming two things regarding human value: first, that we all possess intrinsic value; and second, that we all possess equal intrinsic value. Any view of humanity that does not include a foundation for intrinsic value holds that humans are just as valuable as an ordinary house fly- not a life worth fighting for. And any view that does not hold all humans to be of equal value will necessarily result in a "survival of the fittest" scenario regarding race and any and every other way we can categorize each other. It is only if we are created in the Image of God that we possess both intrinsic and equal value. It is quite impossible to be created in the image of something that does not exist. So, if God does not exist, then neither does equal human value or intrinsic human value at all.

Why Is The Image of God So Important?

Objective Love

Without objective values and obligations, the idea that we should love one another is merely an opinion, just as (in)valid as the idea that we should all hate one another. What does it mean to "carry one another"? One example was given by Jesus, Himself- He died in order that we might live; and in His resurrection from the dead proved that we can rely on Him to carry us through every evil this world brings, even death. And when you understand this love and accept Jesus' carrying you, you, as a member of the Body of Christ are called to "carry one another." If Jesus did not live, die, and live again, we have no example of the self-sacrifice required to carry out the obligation of love, and if God does not exist at all, there is not even a ground for such an obligation to exist in the first place.

Book Review: The Risen Jesus And Future Hope

Objective Purpose

"We were made for something more." God created us with a purpose; unless we are the creation of a Purposer, we may choose our own subjective purpose. If God does not exist to ground equal and intrinsic human value, the objectivity of love as a virtue, and the objectivity of our purpose, the self-given purpose to hurt and kill one another is just as permissible as the self-given purpose to love one another and "fight for each other." It is all just a matter of opinion if God does not exist to provide a ground for one of our objective purposes being to "love one another."

Can You Have Purpose Without God?

Conclusion

If we are truly going to "fight for one another," we need to not only work together in communities to show love, but also be prepared to defend the existence of the very foundation of what drives our actions. We need to be prepared to defend the existence of God and the historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ in the public square, for if we do not, then the idea of equal human value will evaporate and so will any chance that Dr. King's dream would be realized. I am not saying that one must believe God exists for their actions to be objectively good, I'm saying it is only if Christianity is true that it can be (and is) true that "We All Bleed The Same." If Christianity is false, then no matter how much we believe it, the position against racism is just another opinion, and Dr. King's dream will never be realized.