Download Ethics: Discovering Right and Wrong

Chapter Eleven:
Religion and Ethics
Religion has profoundly affected human
conscious life and moral behavior for over two
thousand years.
For Western Civilization, Morality has been
identified with adherence to religion.
Religion and Ethics
•To act immorally has been seen as essentially
disobeying God.
•Religion has dominated the moral landscape to
appear to be indistinguishable from morality.
•Most people identify morality with religion.
Exceptions:
•Confucianism: Essentially a secular system of
ethics
•Non-theist Buddhism: Also, a secular system of
ethics.
The Divine Command Theory
•Ethical principles are simply the commands of
God.
•They derive their validity from God
commanding them.
•Without God there would be no universally
valid morality.
Problems with the Divine
Command Theory
•Seems to make the attribution of “goodness” to
God redundant
•Seems to make morality into something
arbitrary
Independence Thesis
•Opposed to the Divine Command Theory
•Denies the thesis of the Divine Command
Theory
•Claims that morality does not originate with
God
•Rightness and Wrongness are not dependent on
God’s Will
•There are independent ways to act
Kant: God Makes Morality
Possible
•Kant claimed that both humans and God must
obey the same rational principles
•Being moral is our duty to God
•We ought to be moral, which means we can be
moral and therefore, we are able to reach moral
perfection, but being imperfect beings, it will not
occur in this lifetime.
Is Religion Irrelevant or Even
Contrary to Morality?
•Russell: Religion Irrelevant to Morality
•Hume: The Immorality of God and Religion
•Nowell-Smith and Rachels: Religion Conflicts
with Moral Autonomy
Does Religion Enhance
The Moral Life?
•If there is a God, good will win out over evil.
•If God exists, then cosmic justice reigns in the
universe.
•If Theism is true, moral reasons always override
nonmoral reasons.
•If Theism is true, then there is a God who loves
and cares for us
Does Religion Enhance
The Moral Life?
•If there is a God who created us in his image, all
persons are of equal worth.
•If God exists, we have a compelling solution to
the posterity problem.
The Case against Religion
•A lot of evil has been done by religious people
in the name of religion
•We don't know for sure whether a benevolent
God exists
•Religious morality closes off dialogue
•Religious morality leads to group intolerance
•Religious morality threatens church-state
separation