Wednesday 15 Sept 2004: P.113-118, 125-129
Religion
and Morality: Exploring the Connections (Cook)
(113)
Historical Observations
- Western religions
honor Moses and God’s revelation to him
- Many look to religion
to know how to act morally
- Many believe god grounds
morals (without him, anything is allowed)
- Many expect religious
leaders to live up to higher standards
- The Historical
Problem: morals are arbitrary if determined by God and if they come from
rational thought then it transcends rational morals
Religion and Rationality:
Religious Synthesis (114)
- Natural law says (see
previous notes); allows believers and non-believers to participate in
morality
- Those who developed
arguments about this synthesis and natural law have been prosecuted in
their own time
- Author believes
religion will adopt forms of natural law for other principles as well so
that non-believers can conform too
The Contribution of Religion to Morality (115)
- Claims that religion
must be the basis of morality threatens morality itself and is not
well-grounded in religious thinking
- Religion has an impact
on the moral life of individuals through
- The “sort of person”
one is – religion tries to influence how children are raised and how
people think about things like love
- Reasons for being
moral – gratitude to god
- Religion and the
interpretation of the circumstances of action – situations described in
the Bible form foundations for actions now
- Religion and morality
have complex relationships
- Religion profoundly
impacts those who follow it
- Natural law allows
religion to share its morality with non-believers
A
Philosophical Defense of Divine Command Theory (Eberle) (125)
- Euthyphro Dilemma –
some use it refute DCT; Eberle claims it only refutes a caricature of DCT
- Does god command what
is right arbitrarily or based on a universal standard he is passing down
- Since god is perfect
and loving he would only issue moral orders
- As a result, DCT is
founded because the orders are not arbitrary because god would never
order you to do the wrong thing