Pojman ethics 8e_ppt_ch12

Ethics: Discovering
Right and Wrong
Louis P. Pojman and James Fieser
8th edition

Chapter Twelve: Religion
and Ethics
 A Church of England bishop said recent floods were
God’s judgment for society’s moral corruption and
environmental irresponsibility.
 Historically, morality has been linked with religion.
 To act immorally is to disobey God.
 Religion has so dominated the moral landscape that it is
indistinguishable from morality.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.

Religion and Ethics (1 of 2)
 Most people identify morality with religion.
 Exceptions:
 Confucianism in China is a secular system.
 Nontheist versions of Buddhism exist.
 Greek philosophers contemplated morality independent of
religion.

Religion and Ethics (2 of 2)
 Does morality depend on religion?
 Is religion irrelevant or even contrary to morality?
 Does religion enhance the moral life?

Does Morality Depend on
Religion?
 Do moral standards depend on God for their validity or
is there an independence of ethics, so even God is
subject to the moral order?
 Does God command the good because it is good or is the
good only good because God commands it?

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.

Three Theses of the
Divine Command Theory
 Morality originates with God.
 Moral rightness simply means “willed by God,” and
moral wrongness means “being against the will of God.”
 Because morality is based on divine will, not on
independently existing reasons for action, no further
reasons for action are necessary.

Four Propositions of the
Divine Command Theory
 Act A is wrong if and only if it is contrary to the
command of God.
 Act A is right (required) if and only if it is commanded
by God.
 Act A is morally permissible if and only if it is
permissible by the command of God.
 If there is no God, then nothing is ethically wrong,
required, or permitted.

The Independence Thesis
 The independence thesis is opposed to the divine
command theory and claims:
 Morality does not originate with God.
 Rightness and wrongness are not based simply on God’s
will.
 There are reasons for acting one way or the other, which
may be known independent of God’s will.

Problems with the Divine
Command Theory
 It seems to make the attribution of “goodness” to God
redundant.
 It seems to make morality into something arbitrary.
 If there are no constraints on what God can command,
then anything can become a moral duty.

Kant: God Makes Morality
Possible
 Kant held firmly to the independence thesis.
 Kant claimed that both humans and God must obey the
same rational principles.
 Religion completes morality by directly linking it with
the immortality of the soul and God’s existence.
 Moral law commands us to be morally perfect, and
therefore, we must be able to reach moral perfection,
but not in this life.
 Kant says there must be a God, acting as judge and
enforcer of the moral law, without which the moral law
would be unjustified.

Is Religion Irrelevant or Even
Contrary to Morality?
 Secularists want to disentangle the relationship
between religion and morality.
 Some argue that religion is irrelevant to morality.
 Others espouse that religion is actually contrary to true
morality.

Russell: Religion
Irrelevant to Morality
 Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) said religion made no
useful contributions to civilization and caused
incalculable suffering.
 Morality has no need of God.
 Life has the meaning we give it, and morality is part of
any meaningful life.
 Criticism: George Mavrodes says Russell’s secular
morality is superficial and can’t answer the question:
“Why should I be moral?”

Hume: The Immorality
of God and Religion
 David Hume (1711–1776) stated problems with
connecting religion and morality.
 Religions depict God as an immoral tyrant who acts out of
vengeance, severity, cruelty, and malice.
 Religious practices are typically contrary to morality.
 To be moral, I must reduce my religious superstition and
fanaticism.

Dawkins: The Immorality
of God and Religion
 Richard Dawkins argued that religion promotes
immorality.
 Religion has justified many types of conduct that, in more
enlightened times, we recognize as immoral.
 Religion gives people a misguided loyalty toward members
of their own in-group and fosters suspicion and hostility
toward outsiders.

Nowell-Smith and Rachels:
Religion Conflicts with Moral
Autonomy
 Many secular philosophers argued that religion gives rise
to an inferior morality.
 P.H. Nowell-Smith: Religious morality, in being rule-
governed, is like children not understanding the wider
purposes of the rules of games.
 James Rachels: Believers relinquish their autonomy in
worship and so are immoral.

Does Religion Enhance the
Moral Life?
 The case for morality’s dependence on religion is weak.
 The secularist’s case for the view that true morality is
incompatible with religion is also weak.
 Both claims are extreme and defy conclusive proof.

The Case for Religion (1 of 2)
 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—his love inspires us.

The Case for Religion (2 of 2)
 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.
 Theism doesn’t deprive us of our autonomy; the world
of the theist may be more satisfying; and through
revelation, the theist can access deeper moral truths.

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.

Conclusion
 Does morality depend on religion?
 The independence thesis is correct.
 God, if he exists, loves the good because of its intrinsic
value.
 Morality has independent value so that moral truth exists
whether or not God does.
 Religion can enhance the moral life by providing
motivating reasons to be moral.

Pojman ethics 8e_ppt_ch12

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