Morality, Religion, and Conscience
Today well critically examine DCT , using John Arthurs article
as our guide
In particular, well evaluate how well DCT answers the
metaphysical question, the epistemological question, and the motivational question
Note: Arthur usually speaks in terms of religion but Ill mostly
speak in terms of God
The Motivational Question
Suggestion 1: God is required for moral motivation The idea here is that people required divine promises of reward, or
fear of divine punishment to do what is right. Or perhaps a sense of purpose is required.
Reply: There are many other sources of moral motivation Fear of social disapproval Avoiding feelings of guilt It seems to me that many of us, when it really gets down to it,
dont give much of a thought to relgion when making moral decisions (Arthur 23).
The Motivational Question (contd)
Further objection. Not only is God not required
for moral motivation, but DCT seems to get the motivational question all wrong.
Given DCT, it is dicult to see why I should be moral. Why
should I do what God commands?
Answer 1. God will punish you if you do not. But this makes moral motivation a matter of self-interest. But that is not what morality is about, right?
The Motivational Question (contd)
Consider:
Late one night, some punk on State Street pulls a knife and demands your money. We might say that you ought to give him the money, but we dont mean it would be morally wrong not to do so. We mean it would be prudent to do so.
In a slogan, might does not make right, even in the
case of God
The DC theorist can revise her answer, however...
The Motivational Question (contd)
Answer 2. We ought to be good (that is, we ought to obey
God) because God created us.
But this relies on the principle that a thing ought to obey its
creator. But that sounds like an independent moral duty.
Answer 3. We ought to be good because we owe God our
gratitude.
Again, where did the moral duty of gratitude come from?
That one ought to be grateful to ones creator sounds like an independent moral principle.
The Epistemological Question
Suggestion 2. God (religion) is required for moral knowledge. However much people may want to do the right thing...we
cannot ever know for certain what is right without the guidance of religious teaching (Arthur 23).
Reply. Getting to moral truth without religious teaching may be
immensely dicult, but getting to moral truth with religious teaching is no less dicult!
Consider the mineeld of questions that must be faced:
The Epistemological (contd)
Question Is there a God? If there is a God, which God is it? Which of the many religions is the true religion? Similarly,
which of the many allegedly inspired texts is genuine?
If Ive managed to make it this far (!), how much of the inspired
text is authoritative? And how do I know which interpretation is correct?
Arthur concludes, therefore, that God (religion) is not much
help, epistemically speaking. But it gets worse...
The Epistemological Question (contd) An Interesting Epistemological Problem for DCT
[Assuming divine command theory], for all we know, torturing people is morally good right now, but its just that we live in a universe where it is also morally good to deceive people about important things and thus God, being perfectly good by that standard, is deceiving us right now about how good it would be were we to become torturers. Thus, saying that things are morally good just because God wills them seems to be not without difficulties...
Tim Mawson
The Epistemological Question (contd)
A Second Interesting Epistemological Problem for DCT
History is littered with people who mistakenly believed God was
telling them to kill innocents, sleep with others wives, take vast amounts of money for themselves, and so on.
We need a way of discerning what God does and does not
command. But how to do this?
Reason seems to provide the best answer But now were right back to needing a normative moral theory
The Metaphysical Question
Suggestion 3. God is required for an objective basis for morality Religion is necessary for morality because without God there could
be no right or wrong. God, in other words, provides the foundation or bedrock on which morality is founded (Arthur 24).
Reply. Why think that? What is wrong with these alternatives? Reason Human nature Natural sentiments Or simply reject that morality needs an objective basis Arthur concludes that there are respectable metaphysical
alternatives. But it gets worse...
The Metaphysical Question (contd) An Interesting Metaphysical Problem for DCT
DCT seems to make morality arbitrary What are Gods reasons for commanding one action (or one sort of action)
over another?
The DC theorist is committed to saying, None. Thus, God must choose
willy-nilly what is right and wrong. Two very unwelcome conclusions follow from this: (a) God could have made rape and genocide (and other repugnant acts) morally obligatory if he so wished (b) There is no substantive reason why he did not make rape and genocide morally obligatory