T“ hey show that the work of the law is           have the capacity and responsibility to
            written on their hearts, while their  choose between good and evil. We reveal
            conscience also bears witness, and    our moral nature every time we use words
            their conflicting thoughts accuse or  like should, shouldn’t, ought, owe, right, and
 even excuse them” (Rom 2:15 ESV). All crea­      wrong. Whenever we praise or blame, ap­
 tures are subject to physical laws, like gravi­  plaud or scorn, approve or disapprove, we
 ty, which cannot be broken. Human beings         are appealing to a shared ethical standard ex­
 are also subject to moral laws, like charity,    ternal to ourselves. We know by moral intu­
 which can be broken. No sane person denies       ition, for instance, that it is wrong to deceive
 the reality of physical laws, since attempting   friends or to starve our children.
 to break them yields such obvious results.
 However, it is fashionable for people to deny        Although people vehemently disagree
 the reality of moral laws, partly because the    on many ethical issues, mostly for tactical
 consequences of breaking them—although           reasons, they all still appeal to a universal
 severe and eternal—are neither sudden nor        stand­ ard. Those who deny the sanctity of
 apparent. People have learned not to chal­       life by advocating abortion will still affirm
 lenge physical laws, because nature never        the sanctity of life by opposing other forms
 forgives. God, however, tempers the de­          of murder. Those who mock Biblical ethics
 mands of His moral laws with mercy. Taking       will howl in protest if one of their treasured
 advantage, people contest God’s ethical          values is attacked. If anyone says, “We
 standards, because they find them too un­        should pave all the rainforests,” they will in­
 comfortable, inconvenient, and unwork­           sist that environmentalism is not simply a
 able.                                            matter of personal preference, and that ev­
                                                  eryone should believe as they do. And if
     Unlike animals, humans live in two           their sexual ethic permits premarital or ho­
 worlds at the same time—a physical domain        mosexual relations, they will still recognize
 and a moral domain. More than rationality,       the evil of child trafficking and date rape.
 more than language, it is our moral nature
 that distinguishes us from even the highest          Darwinism cannot explain this univer­
 animal. God has put an innate sense of right     sal sense of right and wrong. Lifeless matter
 and wrong in our consciences. Every day we       does not generate moral codes, and selfish
 shoulder the human duty to make ethical          genes do not profit from ethical duty. Con­
 decisions. Animals don’t make free choices;      sider the good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37).
 their genes and environment dictate what         He acted out of high altruism, putting his
 they will do. Nothing made purely of matter      own safety and money on the line in order
 can be free. But we humans, spirits made in      to help a complete stranger from a reviled
 the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:27),        community. Since this behavior conferred