Determining "good" and "right"The definitions of "morality" and "ethics" always seem
to employ references to good and evil, right and wrong
conduct, so it is important to understand how these
designations are determined and evaluated. What
determines what is "good" or "right"? Do goodness or
righteousness exist in and of themselves? Does evil exist in
and of itself? Is there such a thing as "autonomous
goodness," an autonomous ethic standard, or what Jacques
Ellul refers to as the "autonomy of morality?" 4
Christianity asserts that God alone is autonomous,
independent and self-existent. Everything and everyone
else is dependent and derivative.
When one posits an autonomous standard of "good" or
a separated law of "right" behavior, which is objective to,
other than, and outside of God, then such an ideological
entity becomes a replacement for God. Such a mental
formulation becomes the foundation of social morality as
the individuals within that social unit bow down in
customary conformity to the ideological idol.
Morality always begins with the premise of autonomy
and independent existence. The morality thesis seems to
divide into at least three premises: