Religion and Morality 3.5 / 5 based on 2 ratings ? PhilosophyIdeas of godsASEdexcel Created by: JordanCreated on: 01-12-12 15:49 Background Possible relationships between religion and morality: Morality is derived from religion Dependent Morality and religion are two distinct entities Independent Morality and religion are opposed to one another Religion is immoral 1 of 6 Morality as dependent on religion Divine command theory: Something is good/bad, right/wrong because God says so Adv.- provides a source of authority for moral absolutes Disadv.- how can God's will be known? e.g. Ten Commandments, Jesus' sermon on the mount St Thomas Aquinas: 4th of his 5 ways to prove God put forward in 'Summa Theologica'-moral argument We can observe varying degrees of goodness in the world The source of this goodness must be some perfect, absolute goodness from which it all proceeds (Plato's theory of forms) This we can call God 2 of 6 Morality as dependent on religion, cont. Immanuel Kant: Humans has a categorical imperative (ought) to search for the highest good - summum bonum - in order to bring about a perfect society However that is impossible to achieve in this life However 'ought' implies 'can' Therefore we require immortal souls and an afterlife to achieve summum bonum which God can provide 3 of 6 Conscience St Thomas Aquinas: Conscience is a device given to us by God to help disitinguish right from wrong The main difficulty is differentiating between the two Reason for evil deeds is that mistakes are made and a false good is followed Syndersis- awareness of moral principles Conscienta- distinguishing between the two and make a decision Joseph Butler: Conscience is the final moral decision maker It was put there by God and so must be obeyed Because your conscience says so is an adaquate justification for doing something Sigmund Freud: Conscience is developed through experiances, especially those occurring in childhood An over-active conscience can be negative because it represses natural urges 4 of 6 Morality and religion as independent Euthyphro Dilemma: Put forward in Plato's 'The Euthyphro' in which Socrates discusses morality Is something good because God loves it? If so, then the statement 'God is good' makes no sense It would be like saying 'good is good' This makes goodness/morality arbitrary Does God love something because it is good? If so, good comes from somewhere else other than God Where? God is not omnipotent Plato as Socrates argues that God loves something because it is lovable Therefore saying that the two are indpendent 5 of 6 Morality and religion as opposed Crusades and inquisitions have been done in the name of God Lucretius "Such evil deeds could religion provoke" Bertrand Russell "principal enemy of moral progress in the world" Preventing the ending of wars Preventing scientific and moral progress Preventing children from getting a rational education Galileo Put under house arrest for his scientific theories holds back scientific progress David Hume "errors in religion are dangerous, those in philosophy only ridiculous Criticisms: Religion is the source for many moral absolutes e.g. Mother Theresa, Ghandi, MLK Evil happens whithout religion- evil comes from people, not religion 6 of 6
(b) 'The existence of morality is not evidence for the existence of God.' Discuss. [10] 5.0 / 5 based on 5 ratings
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