Religion and moralityMany people see a close connection

Many ethical terms have religious connotations or origins

Religious institutions can often endorse certain ethical positions or doctrines

Philosophers and others disagree about what the connection is and whether there is one or not.

Start by

Assuming God exists

God is morally Good

Divine Command TheorySomething is morally good if

and only if God approves of it.

An action performed by a person is morally right if and only if the action is what God commands or desires a person to do at that time

ExampleI just whacked myself on the

head with a book. Was that the right thing to do?

If God wished me to do it at that time then yes!

If God didn’t want me to do it at that time it wasn’t.

How helpful is DCT?Lets use the 10 commandments as an example

The 10 C’s would suggest that something is

morally right if and only if the action

does not violate the 10 C’s

Are there acts which violate the 10 C’s but are morally right?

Are there acts that don’t violate the 10 C’s but are still morally

wrong?

Cases of wrong acts that do not violate the 10 C’s

Don the lucky drunk Driver

What of cases of child pornography, internet spamming, public urination, vandalism?

Acts that do violate the 10 C’s but are morally right

Working on the Sabbath to feed your family?

Stealing from the rich to give to the poor?

Another example :The Golden Rule

“in everything do unto others what you would have them do unto you,” Matthew 7:12

Acts which violate the GR but seem wrong

Consider Pete the pervert who loves Consider Pete the pervert who loves groping strangers and being groped by groping strangers and being groped by strangersstrangers

If the GR is true/right /good Commanded by God

then

Pete’s act of groping grandma Betty at Asda in the Avenue was morally right.

Acts which violate the GR but seem rightActs which violate the GR but seem right

A doctor who is allergic to penicillin but uses penicillin to treat her patients

A hair stylist who gives a customer a haircut that the customer asks for, but the hairstylist himself would not want.

The Euthyphro DilemmaPlato (427-347 BCE)

This issue is a very old one in philosophy.

In the western tradition it dates back to Plato’s Euthyphro from the 4th century BCE

In it the characters Socrates and Euthyphro discuss the nature of the pious or piety.

Socrates asks:

Is the pious loved by the God’s because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the Gods?

Euthyphro believes that the Gods love things because they are

piousSocrates concludes that then piety must be something different from being loved by Gods

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