Right and Wrong, cont.

Your question is: "How [does] a Christian think that God, or a belief in God, provides a standard of morality (other than the idea of reward and punishment)?"

Your question is, perhaps by design, worded in such a manner as to be taken a couple of ways. "How does God give us a sense of morality?" is, of course, a much different question than "How does belief in God give us a sense of morality?" These are as far apart as, say "How does believing in evolution give us a sense of morality?" and "How does evolution give us a sense of morality?"

Do you see the difference?

As to how belief in God provides for a standard of morality, my answer is simply this: I don't think it does, nor do a great many other Christians. I would even go so far as to say that the majority of Christians (at least those I would describe as thoughtful) do not hold this view. So to the extent popular atheists like Christopher Hitchens use this notion to try to "debunk" religion in general, and the Judeo-Christian tradition in particular, this is a straw man.

For obvious reasons, I will generally refrain from quoting the Bible here. In this case, though, I think that you will find at least some common ground with the Apostle Paul.

"Whenever the Gentiles [non-Jews], who do not have the law, do by nature the things required by the law, these who do not have the law are a law to themselves. They show that the work of the law is written in their hearts, as their conscience bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or else defend. - Romans 2:14-15"

To put this idea in secular terms, let me quote from a New York Times book review of Moral Minds, a book written by Marc D. Hauser, Harvard Biologist:

"The moral grammar too, in Dr. Hauser’s view, is a system for generating moral behavior and not a list of specific rules. It constrains human behavior so tightly that many rules are in fact the same or very similar in every society — do as you would be done by; care for children and the weak; don’t kill; avoid adultery and incest; don’t cheat, steal or lie.

So although there is obviously disagreement about where our sense of morality comes from and how it got there (like you, Hauser believes it "evolved"), there seems to be at least some consensus on the fact that we do have it -- regardless of one's belief in God. Christians generally refer to this idea as "Natural Law," the belief that God has given mankind a shared sense of morality.

(Wikipedia gives a very good overview of Natural Law, pointing out that Aristotle is considered the "Father of Natural Law." As a practical example, the principles of Natural Law are enshrined in the U.S. Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.")

If, on the other hand, you are asking a question about process -- that is to say "How does God give us a sense of morality?" -- honestly, Steve, I do not know. It is a mystery to me.

There is much more to say on this, and points you raise that need to be addressed, but I'd like to keep these posts short. Before moving on, please let me know if I am on point here. If not, I'll try to go back and clarify my view.