Critiques of Religion and Morality
- Created by: TheAwesomeOne
- Created on: 08-04-15 22:27
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- Critiques of Religion and Morality
- Where does morality come from?
- From God - theonomous
- God is the source of moral knowledge
- God is the motivation to do good
- God is the source of moral goodness
- From the individual - autonomous
- From someone else - heternomous
- From God - theonomous
- Euthyphro Dilemma
- Divine Command Theory
- God --> moral --> humans
- Critiques
- Non-religious people must be able to be moral. But, since they don't believe that moral standards are derived from God, how can goodness come from God's command?
- There is a questionable basis for morality as it is sometimes motivated by a fear of punishment from God
- Surely it is better for people obey God out of love, rather than fear
- Does God forbidding something make it wrong? It could end up trivialise God's law-making authority
- Some religious believers may focus on a limited range of moral commands which they hold to be at the heart of Go's moral commands and become extreme
- If God commands something, is it sufficient grounds to say that it is moral?
- Leibniz - devaluation of the acts of goodness
- if goodness is solely that which God commands, the n it follows that there is no intrinsic value to a good action
- Supervenience - moving from a non-ethical belief to an ethical statement (is-ought gap)
- Wht do we do in situations where God doesn't expressively give a command? (eg: euthanasia)
- Morals --> God --> humans
- Critique (there is only one)
- since God is getting his morals from some other higher being. he is not omnipotent
- Critique (there is only one)
- Divine Command Theory
- Biblical Morality
- Kierkegaard
- Book: 'Fear and Trembling'
- The Religious Stage-
- characterised by the individual having a personal relationship with God
- views faith (subjective) as the highest end (irrational/ paradoxical)
- characterised by the individual having a personal relationship with God
- It is reasonable for an individual to abandon morality in order to fulfil the demands of faith
- The 'Teleological suspension of the ethical'
- We should disregard all morally right and wrongs agreed by the community
- instead, we put all faith and trust in God, which is a higher 'telos' (purpose)
- We should disregard all morally right and wrongs agreed by the community
- The Ethical stage -
- the generally agreed stage by the community of what is right and wrong
- ethical life conforms to community-based rules
- the rules prescribed by the state, religion and community do not lead you to conform to the will of God
- ethical life conforms to community-based rules
- the generally agreed stage by the community of what is right and wrong
- Moses
- killed thousands of men, women (who were not virgins) and children
- had already received the the Ten Commandments that stated"Do not kill"
- God ordered Moses, with an army, to kill which contradicts statement in the Decalogue
- had already received the the Ten Commandments that stated"Do not kill"
- killed thousands of men, women (who were not virgins) and children
- Abraham and Isaac
- God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, in order to prove faith in God
- Is Abraham's act justifiable since it is one man vs. thousands of people?
- killed thousands of men, women (who were not virgins) and children
- God ordered Moses, with an army, to kill which contradicts statement in the Decalogue
- God ordered Moses, with an army, to kill which contradicts statement in the Decalogue
- killed thousands of men, women (who were not virgins) and children
- Daphne Hampsn: Sarah (Abraham's wife) would have known that God was testing him, and that you were supposed to question
- Kierkegaard
- Nietzsche & the slave revolt in morals
- Slave Morality
- there has been a terrible event that has turned human values upside down
- slave morality questions the values of the masters and seeks to enslave them too
- Christians and their successors have supported slavish values like humility, mercy and forgiveness, which seek to topple the rule of the strong
- Christians came up with morals such as mercy and forgiveness; makes the master conform and become on the same level as the slaves, making the hierarchy be destroyed
- Marx: opposes with the sense of status and morality
- rulers are bad and want to suppress the working class
- Marx: opposes with the sense of status and morality
- Christians came up with morals such as mercy and forgiveness; makes the master conform and become on the same level as the slaves, making the hierarchy be destroyed
- Master Morality
- self automous
- no place for God
- Slave Morality
- Richard Dawkins
- Critique 1 - Religion is immoral
- believes that the indoctrination of children is the worst part of religion
- God of the Old Testament is 'the most unpleasant character in all fiction'
- Critique 2 - Moral behaviour be based on religion
- You do not need to be religious to be moral
- Freud - parents police our moral compass by telling what is right and/or wrong when we are young
- Nietzsche - slave morality; blindly following morals
- morality has evolved in order for the continuation of species to occur
- Critique 1 - Religion is immoral
- Psychological
- Freud
- We need a father figure but we mistakenly turned to the idea of a perfect being (God)
- religion stemmed from primitive tribes
- God becomes the substitute to help humanity deal with actions
- Jung
- religion is a natural process that stems from the archetypes within the unconscious mind
- unconscious mind
- collective unconscious - common to all humans
- personal unconscious - individual experiences
- unconscious mind
- religion is a natural process that stems from the archetypes within the unconscious mind
- Freud
- Where does morality come from?
- in the exam, you are asked for to critiques
- Dawkins - critique 1 and 2
- Critique 2 also links with psychological, Nietzsche and Euthyphro Dilemma
- Critique 1 also links with Biblical morality
- Dawkins - critique 1 and 2
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