Does
Morality
Come
From God?
Phil 2525
Lecture 6

Christ was not teaching
a new religion

He was calling the
people back to their
roots

He lived Jewish and he
died Jewish

St. Paul
Christianity adopted Roman
political organization…

Pontifex Maximus
1650 Innocent X
Tiberius AD 14
John-Paul II 1990
The secular mind gave way
to the theological mind…

Secular -- relating to worldly things

Theological – relating to godly things
(Theology is the study of religions
or religious systems)
 In
ancient Greece,
reason is the highest value
 In
Christendom,
faith is the highest value
Definitions of
believers (or
non….)
Theist
Agnostic
Atheist
Deist
Ethics and morality give us the rules by which we
live with other people




they set limits to our desires and actions
they tell us what is permitted and what is not
they give us guiding principles for making decisions
they tell us what we "ought" and "ought not" to do
But where do they come from?

A tablet of virtues
hangs over every
people
The Ten
Commandments
Bertrand Russell:
page 49



Man is here by
accident
We cannot defy or
deny or outlive the
grave
The extinction of the
solar system will take
us all down
A little
warmth...in a
cold world
6000 years ago…
Divine Command Theory

Make it so...
Question that Plato put
into the mouth of Socrates
Did the gods discover or invent the moral order?


Is conduct right because the gods command
it?
Or do the gods command it because it’s
right?
Prometheus
Problems for the Divine Command Theory...

Socrates’ first option:
“Right conduct is right because God commands it...”
1.
makes morality mysterious.
2.
makes God’s commands arbitrary.
3.
provides the wrong reasons for morality.
Problems for the Divine Command Theory...

“Right conduct is right because God commands it...”
We could not call God ‘good’, because there would be no
standard by which to judge.
God as the ultimate moral subjectivist....
Problems for the Divine Command Theory...

Socrates’ second option:
“God commands it because it is right...”
1.
suggests that ‘rightness’ exists outside of or prior to
God.
2.
breaks the connection between God and morality.
God is merely a messenger...
The Theory of
Natural Law



Based on the ancient Greek
theory that everything has a
place and a purpose.
The world is orderly and
rational.
Man has the means to
understand the order.
The Theory of
Natural Law

St. Thomas Aquinas’
precepts....

Primary:
self preservation
Subsidiary:
procreation
education of children
living in society
worshipping God

1.
2.
3.
4.
Where do the values come from?

The scientists offer
descriptions -- not
prescriptions

The Divine Command
Theory says we should
look to God’s
instruction.

The Natural Law
Theory says that reason
will lead us to God’s
instruction.
The Ten
Commandments

Take a piece of paper.

List some of the worst
problems that our
society faces today…

Take a piece of paper.

List some of the worst
problems that our
society faces today…

Check mark the ones
addressed by the Ten
Commandments.
The 10 Commandments
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Honour thy father and thy mother.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
Thou shalt not covet.
Graven
images?

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
James Joyce

Angela’s Ashes
Frank McCourt
The Golden Rule

Ancient Sumer (over 5,000 years ago):
If you take the neighbour’s field. The neighbour
will come and take yours.

Rabbi Hillel (at the time of Christ):
What is hateful to yourself do not unto your fellow.

Confucius (at the time of Socrates):
Treat others the way you want to be treated.
Bertrand Russell’s 10 commandments :
1. Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
2. Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence,
for the evidence is sure to come to light.
3. Never try to discourage thinking, for you are sure to succeed.
4. When you meet with opposition... endeavour to overcome it by
argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon
authority is unreal and illusory.
5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always
contrary authorities to be found.
6. Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for
if you do, the opinions will suppress you.
7. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every "opinion" now
accepted was once eccentric.
8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive
agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former
implies a deeper agreement than the later.
9. Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient when
you try to conceal it.
10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a
fool's paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.
Humanist Ten Commandments...
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Proclaim the natural dignity and equality of all human
beings
Respect life and property
Show tolerance and open mindedness towards others
Share with the less fortunate and those in need
Do not dominate and exploit others through lies, or
through temporal or spiritual power
Rely on reason and logic and avoid superstitions
Conserve and improve the earth's natural environment
Do not resort to violence or to wars
Adopt political and economic democracy
Develop one’s intelligence and talents through education
and effort

Men never do evil so completely and
cheerfully as when they do it from
religious conviction.
-Blaise Pascal
(Pensees, 1670)


“The Year of Living Biblically is about my quest to
live the ultimate biblical life. To follow every
single rule in the Bible – as literally as possible.”
http://www.ajjacobs.com/books/yolb.asp

The Jewish Atheist
A resource, meeting place and forum for
those who want to live humanistic lives
without God
http://thejewishatheist.com/?p=71
Lazarus Long...

The most preposterous notion that H. sapiens
has ever dreamed up is that the Lord God of
Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes,
wants the saccharine adoration of His creatures,
can be swayed by their prayers, and becomes
petulant if He does not receive this flattery. Yet
this absurd fantasy, without a shred of evidence
to bolster it, pays all the expenses of the oldest,
largest, and least productive industry in all
history.
 “I
contend we are both atheists, I just
believe in one fewer god than you do.
When you understand why you dismiss
all the other possible gods, you will
understand why I dismiss yours.”
—Stephen F Roberts
Attendance question...

An ounce of mother is worth a ton of priest.
......Spanish proverb
What does this mean to you?