THE PHILOSOPHICAL ARGUMENT FOR THE LINK BETWEEN MORALITY AND THE EXISTENCE OF GODMain philosophers: Aquinas, Kant, Socrates

Sample of the argument - Can we argue for the existence of God on the basis of the phenomenon of morality?

Example one:1. Morality is a system of prescriptive laws or ‘oughts’

(e.g. ‘don’t lie, don’t kill, don’t steal…’; ‘you ought to do to others as you would be done by’).

2. Prescriptive laws differ from natural (physical) laws, from truths of reason, and from mere custom: prescriptive laws require a law-maker.

3. Moral laws claim to over-ride all civil laws, so no human law-maker has the authority to make moral law.

Therefore

either the maker of moral law is divine (and so a divine legislator exists or existed) or moral laws have no authority.

Problems

1. Is premise 1 true, as an account either of (i) how people in fact make

moral decisions

or (ii) how people should make moral decisions?

2. Even if moral laws do over-ride all civil laws, does that show that no human being has the authority to determine what he or she (or others) ought to do?

Example two:

1. An action is morally right if and only if an ideal judge (one who possesses wisdom and lacks bias) determines it as such.

2. Human beings are ignorant and prejudiced.

3. Either no action is morally right or a divine judge exists (or existed).

Problem:can and should we endorse a moral theory according to which a divine judge determines what is morally right?

Some technical terms

A moral code

For example, a list of which actions are morally right or of which actions are morally wrong (e.g. the Ten Commandments)

A moral theory

For example, a theory of what makes an action morally right or wrong (e.g. an action is morally right if and only if it produces the greatest happiness for the greatest number)

A meta-ethical theory

For example, a theory of the meaning of moral expressions (e.g. ‘That is the morally right thing to do’ means ‘I like it’)

Divine Command Theory

God commands humans to do certain things and they are good things because God has commanded them.

This is known as ‘The Divine Command theory’ put forward by Emil Brunner 1947

“The Good consists in always doing what God wills at any particular moment” - Brunner

Does the Divine Command Theory show the link between religion and morality?

Yes if:

2. The religious facts determine moral facts i.e. religious things influence the moral action, like God the Creator of life means we do not have the right to either create or destroy it etc.

1. An action is morally right if and only if it is commanded by God; an action is morally wrong if and only if it is forbidden by God.

No if:

1. the ethical component of the religion is really the manifestation of non-moral spiritual goals (e.g. wearing burqa)

2. the ethical component is largely independent of the religious claims (e.g. puritanical virtue like being tee-total)

3. the role of the super-natural is only to monitor human behaviour (e.g. not being able to interfer as in the God of Process theology)

4. the only link between religion and morality is that my motive for acting well is to obtain religious merit or a closer relationship with God or to avoid punishment from God (Heaven and Hell)

5. it claims that God is the most likely to know what the (independently determined) moral facts are - omniscience

Aquinas – Fourth Way

All things are more good or less good; just as they are more noble or less noble.

To judge what is good or noble you need the best or ‘maximum’ by which to judge it.

Therefore So there must be something which is the best or

most noble. There must also be something which is the

cause of this goodness and every other perfect and that is God

Criticism of Aquinas

Bertrand Russell says that you can love the good without it having to be part of some divine being:

“I love the things that are good, and I hate the things that I think are bad..........I don’t say these things are good because they participate in divine goodness”

Kant

All humans use reason to discover what is good i.e. they don’t have to learn about it from religion or anything else.

They have a duty to search for the highest form of good - summum bonum.

Not all morality can be achieved in this life so it must be gained in the next life where God is.

Therefore:For morality and its goal summum bonum to be

meaningful God much be a necessary postulate (essential part) of morality. Therefore God exists

Criticisms

The atheist would not accept that morality is dependent on God even if they accept that it is their duty to work towards the highest morality.

Kant says that atheists are not reasoning properly.

Conscience

This is the obvious way that religion and morality are linked

Many believe that conscience is the voice of God or God-given

‘The inner aspect of life of the individual where a sense of what is right and wrong is developed’. New Dictionary of Christian Ethics and Pastoral Theology

Euthyphro Dilemma

“Is what is pious loved by the gods because it is pious or is it pious because it is loved?”

Socrates is asking: Is something good because God loves it or does God love it because it is good?

Or, in other words: Is murder wrong because God says murder is wrong, or is murder wrong because its wrong in itself?

1. Is something good because God loves it or 2. does God love it because it is good?

If 1. then religion and morality are linked and so morality depends on what God determines

If 2. then religion and morality are separate and not dependent on each other

Euthyphro Dilemma – philosophical meaning

Essay titles

Jan 2011 3 (a) (i) Examine the view that morality is

dependent on religion. (21) (ii) To what extent are the arguments in favour

of this view unsuccessful? (9)June 2012 3 (a) (i) Examine the arguments for and against

the view that morality is independent of religion. (21)

(ii) To what extent are these arguments convincing?(9)