religion and morality
The Divine Command Theory: There are
objective moral facts. Statements of the form “x is
right/good/moral” mean “God approves of x”
and statements of the form “x is
wrong/bad/immoral” mean “God disapproves of
x”.
Socrates: What is piety?
Euthyphro: Piety is doing as I am doing; that is to
say, prosecuting any one who is guilty of murder,
sacrilege, or of any similar crime-whether he be
your father or mother, or whoever he may be-that
makes no difference; and not to prosecute them is
impiety…
Socrates: I did not ask you to give me two or
three examples of piety, but to explain the general
idea which makes all pious things to be pious. Do
you not recollect that there was one idea
which made the impious impious, and the pious
pious?
Euthyphro: Piety, then, is that which is dear to the
gods, and impiety is that which is not dear to
them.
Socrates: Euthyphro, in thus chastising your
father you may very likely be doing what is
agreeable to Zeus but disagreeable to Cronos, and
… there may be other gods who have similar
differences of opinion… [So] upon this view the
same things, Euthyphro, will be pious and also
impious?
Euthyphro: So I should suppose… I should
[instead] say that what all the gods love is
pious and holy, and the opposite which they all
hate, impious.
Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious,
or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?
Does God approve of things because they are
good, or are they good because God approves of
them?
1) Either (a) things are good because God approves
of them or (b) God approves of things because
they are good.
2) If (a), then morality is contingent and God is
arbitrary.
3) Morality isn’t contingent and God isn’t arbitrary.
4) If (b), then the Divine Command Theory is false.
5) The Divine Command Theory is false.
The Euthyphro Argument
1) Either (a) things are good because God approves
of them or (b) God approves of things because
they are good.
2) If (a), then morality is contingent and God is
arbitrary.
3) Morality isn’t contingent and God isn’t arbitrary.
4) If (b), then the Divine Command Theory is false.
5) The Divine Command Theory is false.
pew research center
http://www.pewglobal.org/2007/10/04/chapter3-views-of-religion-and-morality/
moral nature is stamped on human act…
according to reason. If the object as such implies
what is is in accord with the reasonable order of
conduct, then it will be a good kind of action; for
instance, to assist somebody in need. If, on the
other hand, it implies what is repugnant to reason,
then it will be a bad kind of action… To disparage
the dictate of reason is equivalent to condemning
the command of God.
-St. Thomas Aquinas
To the moral agent intent on discovering what she
should do, religious considerations are not to the
point. What she wants to know is: What are the
reasons for and against the various options? What do
reason and conscience require of me? Believers and
nonbelievers may approach these questions in the
same way, and if both are conscientious and rational,
the may arrive at the same answers… In this way, even
though they disagree about religion, believers and
non-believers nevertheless inhabit the same moral
universe.
-James Rachels