RS: Ethics: Religion and morality are independent

Are morality and religion linked?

There are several arguments to suggest that morality and religion are not linked.

If morality and religion are connected we might reasonably expect all religious moral codes to be the same but they are not. For example Christian views differ from Islamic views on marriage and divorce. Christianity itself has no consistent approach on the teaching of marriage.

If God’s commands determine what is morally right (Divine command ethics) then whatever God commands must be right. What if he commanded someone to kill all prostitutes- would that be morally right? Clearly not and to say simply that something is morally right because God commands it is not enough.

If religion and morality are linked then there needs to be a way of knowing what God’s will actually is and how to distinguish this from prejudice or injustice.

It could be argued that morality could only be linked to religion if we could prove beyond all doubt that the source of moral authority is God. We may feel a sense of moral goodness independent of God’s commands, it is impossible to establish that proof.

If we take the alternative view- that God commands what he knows to be good, independently of his own good nature- then God is merely the messenger. Therefore we could access these moral truths some other way and they are not dependent on God to reveal them. God may not be the answer!

Kant’s argument that we ought therefore we can is weakened as we ought to bring

about the summum bonnum but we are not able to do so. He then assumed, a priori, that God is the only being who can do so. However it may be more reasonable

to say that humanity may wish to achieve summum bonnum and perhaps God is likely to assist in accomplishing this but this cant be proven beyond all doubt.

God may not be the source of our moral laws- there are many other possibilities: society, culture, reason, evolution or education.

If morality is nothing more than an expression of human approval with no basis in objective fact it is not linked to religion. As Bertrand Russell observed: ‘I love the things that I think are good and I hate the things that I think are bad. I don’t say that these things are good because they participate in the Divine goodness.’

Grayling puts forward an argument for the irrelevance of religion to contemporary morality. ‘There is widespread supposition that a religious ethic... has to be good for individuals and society.’