Religion & MoralityTo do as one would be done

by, and to love one’s neighbour as oneself,

constitute the ideal perfection of utilitarian morality

Is it me or does what Mill is saying sound familiar?And so I say, in all things do

to others as you would

have them do to

you... ...and, love your

neighbour as you love yourself.

Just because Mill wasn’t religious doesn’t mean he was ignorant to

religious teaching or devalued its

worth.

Let’s go back a little.

In order to reason why anything exists at all, you must first discern

what its very essence is.

The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BCE) said;

By ‘essence’ Aristotle meant what are the very things or properties that make something what it is.He concluded that there were four causes for the existence of something.• The Material Cause: what it is made of and its potential for change.• The Efficient Cause: how it came about.• The Formal Cause: what are its characteristics.• The Final Cause*: what is it for. (*most important)

Task: Try to apply Aristotle’s causes to a pen, a shop, a PC.

For the Christian philosopher, Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274 CE), Aristotle’s ‘Theory of Causes’ raises two essential points.The Efficient Cause, how something came to be; and the Final Cause, what is its purpose.

Aquinas was not so concerned with the essence of inanimate objects (pens, shops etc) but with humanity. The efficient cause of a human being is simple, their parents (Aquinas would later trace this back to a first cause - God), but what of the final cause? Aristotle said it was to seek the general all round well being and happiness which enables us to thrive. The Stoics believed the universe has a basic design and purpose which human morality should work in harmony with in order to achieve this final cause. The idea of a morality that follows the natural purpose of life is known as Natural Law.

Not surprisingly, Aquinas, found God to be the first, efficient cause of the universe and therefore the ultimate efficient cause of humanity.

As for the final cause...

Some things are so

produced by God that, being intelligent, they

bear a resemblance to Him and reflect

His image.

...Meaning...

If humanity is made in the image of God

it has been so in order to have some form of union with Him. Aquinas said

that this is the final cause, and is

perfection, but it cannot be attained until the afterlife

(heaven).

Humanity are not only directed, but direct themselves to their

appointed end by their own actions.

To have unity with God means we need to be one with God and do what God

would want and intend us to do.

...and here’s the warning...

Aquinas believed there is a basic, divinely inspired, moral law (duty) which is is the foundation for all laws and is there to guide us in what we do and why we do it...

Good is to be done and pursued and evil is to be avoided

‘Moral laws and duties’ ‘divinely inspired foundations’, on the surface, Aquinas seems to be advocating a deontological form of ethical decision making. However, we know from his ‘Just War Theory’ that Aquinas was ultimately a consequentialist, with a bias towards a rule utilitarianism. Q. What do you think this picture

shows about where Aquinas gains his inspiration when making

ethical decisions? Christians set out to follow the will of God. This comes from a desire, not just a duty, to be one with God

in spirit, in word and in deed.But, where do Xians find their

source of authority?

So, is Mill right? Does the Golden Rule advocate a utilitarian approach to ethical decision making? Discuss reasons for your answer.Look at each of the sources of Xian authority again. What kind of ethical approach does each one advocate? Can any of them be taken just on their own? What skills would a Christian need to use in deciding what’s right?Look up the following passages. What approach to ethics did Jesus take?

Matthew 5:27-30

Matthew 5:17-20

Luke 14:1-6 John 8:2-11

Matthew 22:35-40

• Ethical Obligations:• To suggest an obligation is to suggest an

expectation from some other. To suggest an ethical obligation suggests that this other has some authority, be it the government, society or God.

Morality & Religion

For the religious believer there is an expected obedience to God’s laws and his will (see Matthew 6). There is direct link between

To be religious and to make religious claims is to be committed to a set of moral values, for example a

religious conversion requires a reorientation of the will.

ones obedience in what you should and should not do and to ones commitment to God.

R.B. Braithwaite

For most religious believers their obedience to God’s ethical will hold eschatological consequences (Matthew 25).

R ELIGI

O N

For the existentialist, if there is no god demanding obedience to a moral law, then there is no threat of punishment or promise of reward and thus morality is meaningless.

HeteronomyMorality is dependent on religious belief.

Its rules are taken from religious

teachings and practice.

The view that morals stem from religion states that our moral codes comes from religious teachings. However, the emphasis on which sources of

authority is the most authoritative, differ.

AutonomyThe belief that morality exists

independently of religion. Ideas are shaped by

reason alone

Secular society recognises the relationship between religion and morality, governments consult religious leaders, who are in turn held to a higher moral code by society and expected to speak out when necessary.

‘Then tell me, what do you say the holy is? And what is the unholy? For consider, is the holy loved by the gods because it is holy? Or is it holy because it is loved by the gods?’

The Euthyphro Dilemma

Task: In pairs, break down this statement into its two parts. Decide which, in your opinion, is right, Which gives God more supreme power? Show reasoning for your answer. What problems does this dilemma raise for the theist?

The dilemma for the theist:On the one hand the argument is saying whatever God commands is good in itself by the very fact that God has commanded it, including what we may normally consider to be wrong, On the other hand, it suggests that there are a set of absolute rules that exist independently of God, that he did not create, but is aware of and commands humans to follow.

(Plato, Phaedo 4thC BCE)

Divine command ethics:The divine command theory states that something is good simply because God command’s it and for no other reason, Human reasoning plays no part in legitimising God’s moral commands.Task: Look at the following passages and discuss the moral validity of God’s judgement. • Abraham’s sacrifice of his son. Genesis 22:1-19 (Surah 37:99-107)• God’s destruction of Sodom. Genesis 19:1-26• Lord Krishna encourages Arjuna to go to war. Bhagavad Gita I.1-III.1Q: Can a normally abhorrent act be justified because God wills it?Q: If God does will it, who are humanity to judge? Q: If God is considered the most reliable source of moral guidance to the religious believer, what problems may arise from this? Q: What is the problem for divine command ethicists if there is no God?

The Patriarchal religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) have a strong history of portraying God’s commands as absolute. A. G. Grayling suggests that punishment, or rather the fear of it, is the main reason that divine command ethicists . However this in itself causes problems. Q: what problems can you identify?Firstly, if God id only followed out of fear then there is not the heart response required by the Shema, Jesus’ teaching and Islamic teaching. Secondly, the fear of punishment or hope of reward is a selfish attitude and is thus morally wrong.

“Morality must not lower herself. Her own nature must be her

recommendation. All else, even divine reward, is nothing else

beside her”Immanuel Kant, Lectures on Ethics

A belief in the divine command theory can result in what Basil Mitchell calls ‘vacuous statements’ such as ‘It must be God’s will’ or ‘Who am I to question God?’ leading to poor or lazy apologetics.

Opposed

Humanists believe morality should not be

linked to religion at all

“Moral values are not dependent on religion and it is untrue, unfair

to non-religious people and a damaging idea in an increasingly

secular society to assert otherwise”

“If human civilisation were to develop all over again, it is highly unlikely that exactly the same religions would

develop. But it is very likely that our basic moral

principles would be the same.” A. J. Ayer, God Talk is Evidently Nonsense.

Q. Can morality exist separately from religion?

Task• As a class, try to agree on a list of twenty good actions (these should range from the mundane to the extraordinary).• Create a column ordering these actions into their higher and lower levels of goodness (the best at the top).

Aquinas & Kant

Fine

OK

Great

Exceptional

Perfect

Good

ness S

cale

Among beings there are some more and some less good, true, noble and the like. But more and less

are predicted of different things according as they resemble in their different ways something which is the maximum. So that there is something which is

truest, something best, something noblest.

Thus there must also be something which is to all beings the cause of their

being, goodness and every other perfection, and this we call God. Aquinas is writing

about what he called the Fourth Way in his Summa Theologica.

Archetypes, contingent realities and the greater unseen reality.OK, pay attention at the back... Here it is in a nutshell...Plato wrote an analogy on life using the idea of people living in a cave all their life, never having seen outside of it. In his ‘Allegory of the Cave’ as it is known, the people in the cave only ever see shadows of those outside of the cave reflected onto the back wall of the cave as those outside pass in front of a giant fire. For the cave dwellers the images they see on the wall are the ‘reality’ of what is outside the cave, whilst in fact they are just poor reflections of the reality that actually exists.

In a similar way, Aquinas states

that the goodness we see in humans in

this contingent world are just contingent realities, as they are merely pale reflection of their source

which is the supreme goodness of God (the Eternal Form, or archetype).

“ I do think that all goodness reflects God in some way and

proceeds from him, so that in a sense the man who loves what is truly good, loves God, even if he

doesn’t advert to God”

F. C. Copleston said to Bertrand Russell

However, Russell was not convinced.

“I love the things that I think are good, and I hate the things that I think are bad... I don’t say these

things are good because they participate in the divine goodness”

Can goodness(or morality) only be measured, as Aquinas posed, with reference to the divine? Or, was Russell right to suggest his morality comes about with no reference to God whatsoever?

• Kant’s Categorical Imperatives:

Immanuel Kant in The Critique of Practical Reason, offers an argument for the existence of God using the existence of morality. Kant believed that there is a universal understanding that some actions are right and some are wrong (murder/rape).

Kant believed humans are able to discern these by the use of reason. Not only can we discern them but we have a duty, or categorical imperative, to seek the highest form of the good, which Kant called the summum bonum (the state of pure virtue topped with perfect happiness).

However, Kant recognised that the moral law would never be satisfied in this life (reward or punishment) and so God must exist, as the architect of the perfect good, in order to accomplish Summum bonum., after life.

In other words...

“Hence, there is in us not merely the warrant but also

the necessity, as a need connected with duty, to

presuppose the possibility of this highest good, which, since

it is possible only under the conditions of the existence of

God, connects the presupposition of the

existence of God with that of duty; that is, it is morally necessary to assume the

existence of God.”

Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason

People can work

out perfect

virtue by use of reason

It is logical for

perfect virtue to

be rewarded by perfect happiness

(SB)

Humans cannot achieve

this without

God in an afterlife

God must exist to

provided summum bonum