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Divine Command
The Role of Religious Belief in
Moral Reasoning
The Importance of Religion in Ethics
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Is not ethics, after all, founded on religion?
Don’t most individuals derive their moral
convictions from religious sources
Sociologically: a great many (over 50%) of
armed forces personnel would describe
themselves as religious
Why not simply teach religious ethics?
At very least, we must confront and explain the
relationship
Divine Command Theory
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DCT: when we say “a person is morally
obligated to do something,” we mean “God
has commanded that this be done”
(Rachels)
DCT: we experience our morality in the
form of “commands,” and only a divine
being (God) has the requisite authority to
issue such commands (Eberle)
Practical Problems
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Socrates’s dilemma with Euthyphro: Is the
Law righteous (just) because God ordains
it, or does God ordain it because it is Just?
Abraham’s problem: religion does not
always command what seems morally right
Knowledge and faith: how do we know
with certainty what God commands, and
when (or whom) we are to obey?
Some Important Contributions of
Religion to Morality (Cook)
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Religions powerfully influence the sort of person
one tries to become (character)
Religious belief offers a powerful incentive to be
moral
Religion is a powerful argument against
relativism (although religious beliefs may be
consistent with moral pluralism)
Religious convictions heighten the moral
sensibilities and interpretive powers of most
individuals
The Dilemma of Conflicting
Duties
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Story of Abraham (Kierkegaard)
Story of King David, Uriah the Hittite,
Gen. Joab, and Nathan the Prophet
Jim Jones, David Koresh
Conflicting religions, competing
interpretations of “divine commands”
The Independence of Ethics
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Regardless of your own, personal motivations
(which may be religious), morality and the claims
of moral obligation must be sufficient to stand on
their own (non-believers are as obligated as
believers)
Your religion may provide your reasons for
action, but moral actions must also be capable of
being justified by reasons beyond religion
The Dilemma of
Naval Leadership
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You find yourself both a Navy or Marine Corps
officer, and a devout believer in one of the
recognized religious faiths. What happens when
your devout religious beliefs conflict with natural
law, with UCMJ, or with lawfully issued orders in
the chain of command?
You find yourself a Navy or Marine Corps officer,
and you have men and women under your command
who themselves encounter the dilemma above. What
kind of counsel, leadership, advice, and example do
you set or give?