Moral Argument

• Aquinas (Fourth Way)
• Kant (source of morality is God)
• Freud’s Criticism (source of morality is guilt)

• Not an actual argument. It aims to prove God – it implies God.
• This argument seeks to show that in the existence of God we find the best explanation for our experience of moral consciousness.
• In the moral behaviour of people is the proof of God’s existence.
• We are good because God tells us to be.

• Fourth of Aquinas’ Five Ways to prove the existence of God
• This is an entry into the moral argument
• Based on Plato’s eternal forms. The contingent realities of which the human mind is aware are merely pale copes of a greater, unseen reality which is eternal. the goodness found in humans and the world is a reflection of the perfect goodness of God. God is perfect in his very being
• Does not suggest how good can be defined. All we know is that God is a supreme source of it and it is his very essence to be perfectly good
• Does not specifically refer to morality itself but truth, nobility, goodness and value.
• We have a concept of what these things are so these ideas must come from somewhere
• There must be something that is most true, more valuable, the most noble and the most good. For Christian theologians, this is God

• There is a moral law which cannot fulfil its goal unless God exists. God is required for morality. God’s existence is implied by human moral experience
• Everybody has to seek the summon bonum
• The duty to promote the highest good is called the categorical imperative. Following this principle means acting morally
• Necessity of an after-life in which the achievement of the summum bonum could be accomplished
• Moral behaviour is not invalid without God but if the goal of morality is to be achieved then God is demanded to bring it about.
• Weaknesses of Kant:
  • Logical? Kant argues ought implies can yet he states that humans ought to bring about the summum bonum however they are unable to.
  •  summum bonum cannot be proven.
  • He states that virtue must be rewarded but claims that a moral action is performed independently of any reward or goal.

• Superego – subconscious set off moral controls. Influenced by our parents and society.
• Ego – the conscious self: most obvious personality.
• Id – unconscious self:  basic drives and repressed memories.
• Sexual impulses cause mental illnesses. We repress sexual impulses because they disgusting us, sending them to our unconscious, e.g. Oedipus and Electra complex.
• Religion is an illusion based on human wishes. It meets certain psychological needs.
• It can govern and regulate human behaviour. Based on what we want to be true as opposed to what is true – ‘wish fulfilment’. It is a neurosis that stops people thinking as adults and taking responsibility for their own lives.

• Questions Kant’s conclusion of God.
• Challenges the notion of an absolute moral law.
• Moral awareness comes from sources other than God, e.g. a willingness to please (esp. opposite sex parent).
• Conscience is developed during infancy and merely helps humans live together.
• Undermines any claim that there is a connection between God and human conscience. Morality can be explained without reference to God.
• Dismissed any relationship between morality, conscience and God. Morality is linked to human guilt.
• Morality is passed on by parents through childhood.
• Conscience, morality or duty are little more than the inherited traditions of one’s family and community.
• Kant = source of morality is God.
• Freud =source of morality is guilt.

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