Making Sense of God: An Invitation to the Sceptical

by Timothy J. Keller

For example, Mari Ruti, a professor at the University of Toronto, writes: “Although I believe that values are socially constructed rather than God given … I do not believe that gender inequality is any more defensible than racial inequality, despite repeated efforts to pass it off as culture-specific ‘custom’ rather than an instance of injustice.”12 Notice that first she says what she must say as a modern, secular person, namely, that all moral values are socially constructed by human beings, not grounded in God. But then she hears some say that therefore they do not have to listen to her call for gender equality, because it is nothing but a Western, culturally constructed custom. On the contrary, she strongly retorts, it is not—gender equality is a universal moral norm that must be honored by all cultures. But how could that be? If all morality is person specific or socially constructed, how can any statement of right and wrong be true for all? In essence, Ruti is saying: “Your moral values are just socially constructed, but mine are not, and so are true for everyone.” This self-justifying, self-contradictory stance is pervasive in our secular culture today.