Does Morality Depend on Religion?
4.1 The Presumed Connection between Morality and Religion
? Separation of Church and State
? Roy Moore and the ACLU
? Priests and ministers as moral experts
? Belief that morality can only be understood through religion
? Religion associated with morals while atheism is not
? Bertrand Russell
4.2 The Divine Command Theory
? Implies that morality is arbitrary
? Act is obligatory if and only if, and because, it is commanded by God
? Honesty and humility is right
? Child abuse and murder is wrong
? Recognizing it and making it
? Does God make the moral truths true or does he merely recognize them
4.3 The Theory of Natural Law
? Everything in nature has a purpose
? Aristotle originated this theory
? Revised by Christian philosophers (Saint Augustine, Saint Thomas)
? How things are and how they ought to be
? When something is serving it's purpose it is right, when it is defecting from that purpose it is wrong
? Beneficence and Deviance
? How do we determine what is right and wrong
? Dictated by reason
? Believers and nonbelievers both have ability to reason
? Moral decision making based on reason does not necessarily involve religion at all
? "Believers and nonbelievers inhabit the same moral universe"
4.4 Religion and Particular Moral is ...