Dr. BJ Condrey

Jason Mraz’s 2008 song I’m Yours includes the lyric: “And it’s our godforsaken right to be loved, loved, loved, loved, loved.” The word “godforsaken” typically suggests something abandoned by God—bleak, desolate, and devoid of divine presence. Yet here it’s strangely paired with the idea of a moral right—to be loved.

Perhaps Mraz means we have this right despite God, or even without God. But if that’s the case, it raises a serious problem. Without an infinite-personal God—like the one revealed in Christianity—what possible foundation exists for objective moral rights? None. A godless universe may allow for preferences or social conventions, but not for inherent rights. At least Friedrich Nietzsche and Jean-Paul Sartre were the kind of atheists who were brutally honest about this.

And yet this is typical of many modern ideologies: discard God, but try to keep the moral ideals only He can sustain. In this case, love is treated as a right—when, without God, it can only ever be a wish.