Our God — Page 99
Logical Arguments for the Existence of God 99 In short, the knowledge of good and evil, which is inherent in human nature, is strong evidence that man did not come into existence by himself and his life is not machine-like; rather, in the background there is an intelligent Being with a determined will who has created him with a purpose. If at this point someone asks the question, is it not possible that this sense, referred to as the innate sense, might be the result of surrounding circumstances, as well as family and national tra- ditions—that is to say, this liking for good and aversion to evil may not be inherent, but that it was something humans learnt through experiencing what is good and bad and, after a long time, this became established in their minds and appears as if it is inherent—the answer to this is that although this criticism appears worthy of consideration, if we examine it carefully it becomes obvious that there are only two ways of acquiring the knowledge of good and evil: either by long-term experience and the effects of our surroundings, as the questioner thinks, or by bestowal from a Higher Being, as Islam teaches us—one cannot think of a third way. What we have to do now is see which of the two is correct and based on reality. The first thing we notice is that there is a kind of uniformity about this knowledge of good and evil, regardless of the people or the times; i. e. this under- standing in its essence appears to be similar in its form and style among every people and during every age. This clearly proves that it could not be the result of experience and impact of our surroundings, but has been bestowed upon human nature by an external power which is supreme and above all. Anything that develops as a result of experience and environmental factors must vary from people to people and from time to time, especially in