Philosophical arguments for the links between religion and morality

1. THE PHILOSOPHICAL
ARGUMENT FOR THE
LINK BETWEEN
MORALITY AND THE
EXISTENCE OF GOD
Main philosophers: Aquinas, Kant, Socrates

2. Sample of the argument - Can we argue for the
existence of God on the basis of the phenomenon of
morality?
Example one:
1. Morality is a system of prescriptive laws or ‘oughts’
(e.g. ‘don’t lie, don’t kill, don’t steal…’; ‘you ought to do
to others as you would be done by’).
2. Prescriptive laws differ from natural (physical) laws,
from truths of reason, and from mere custom:
prescriptive laws require a law-maker.
3. Moral laws claim to over-ride all civil laws, so no human
law-maker has the authority to make moral law.
Therefore
either the maker of moral law is divine (and so a divine
legislator exists or existed) or moral laws have no
authority.

3. Problems
1. Is premise 1 true, as an account either of
(i) how people in fact make moral
decisions
or (ii) how people should make moral
decisions?
2. Even if moral laws do over-ride all civil laws,
does that show that no human being has the
authority to determine what he or she (or others)
ought to do?

4. Example two:
1. An action is morally right if and only if an
ideal judge (one who possesses wisdom
and lacks bias) determines it as such.
2. Human beings are ignorant and
prejudiced.
3. Either no action is morally right or a
divine judge exists (or existed).
 Problem: can and should we endorse
a moral theory according to which a divine
judge determines what is morally right?

5. Some technical terms
A moral code
For example, a list of which actions are morally right or of which actions
are morally wrong (e.g. the Ten Commandments)
A moral theory
For example, a theory of what makes an action morally right or wrong
(e.g. an action is morally right if and only if it produces the greatest
happiness for the greatest number)
A meta-ethical theory
For example, a theory of the meaning of moral expressions (e.g. ‘That is
the morally right thing to do’ means ‘I like it’)

6. Divine Command Theory
 God commands humans to do certain
things and they are good things because
God has commanded them.
 This is known as ‘The Divine Command
theory’ put forward by Emil Brunner 1947
 “The Good consists in always doing what
God wills at any particular moment” -
Brunner

7. Does the Divine Command Theory show the
link between religion and morality?
Yes if:
2. The religious facts determine moral facts i.e. religious
things influence the moral action, like God the Creator of
life means we do not have the right to either create or
destroy it etc.
1. An action is morally right if and only if it is commanded by
God; an action is morally wrong if and only if it is forbidden
by God.

8. No if:
1. the ethical component of the religion is really the
manifestation of non-moral spiritual goals (e.g. wearing
burqa)
2. the ethical component is largely independent of the
religious claims (e.g. puritanical virtue like being tee-total)
3. the role of the super-natural is only to monitor human
behaviour (e.g. not being able to interfer as in the God of
Process theology)
4. the only link between religion and morality is that my
motive for acting well is to obtain religious merit or a
closer relationship with God or to avoid punishment from
God (Heaven and Hell)
5. it claims that God is the most likely to know what the

9. Aquinas – Fourth Way
 All things are more good or less good; just as they
are more noble or less noble.
 To judge what is good or noble you need the best
or ‘maximum’ by which to judge it.
Therefore
 So there must be something which is the best or
most noble.
 There must also be something which is the cause
of this goodness and every other perfect and that
is God

10. Criticism of Aquinas
 Bertrand Russell says that you can love the
good without it having to be part of some
divine being:
 “I love the things that are good, and I hate the
things that I think are bad..........I don’t say
these things are good because they participate
in divine goodness”

11. Kant
 All humans use reason to discover what is
good i.e. they don’t have to learn about it from
religion or anything else.
 They have a duty to search for the highest
form of good - summum bonum.
 Not all morality can be achieved in this life so it
must be gained in the next life where God is.
Therefore:
For morality and its goal summum bonum to be
meaningful God much be a necessary
postulate (essential part) of morality.
Therefore God exists

12. Criticisms
 The atheist would not accept that morality is
dependent on God even if they accept that it is
their duty to work towards the highest morality.
 Kant says that atheists are not reasoning
properly.

13. Conscience
 This is the obvious way that religion and
morality are linked
 Many believe that conscience is the voice of
God or God-given
 ‘The inner aspect of life of the individual where
a sense of what is right and wrong is
developed’. New Dictionary of Christian Ethics and
Pastoral Theology

14. Euthyphro Dilemma
 “Is what is pious loved by the gods because it
is pious or is it pious because it is loved?”
 Socrates is asking: Is something good
because God loves it or does God love it
because it is good?
 Or, in other words: Is murder wrong because
God says murder is wrong, or is murder wrong
because its wrong in itself?

15. 1. Is something good because God loves it or
2. does God love it because it is good?
If 1. then religion
and morality are
linked and so
morality depends
on what God
determines
If 2. then
religion and
morality are
separate and
not dependent
on each other
Euthyphro Dilemma – philosophical
meaning

16. Essay titles
Jan 2011
 3 (a) (i) Examine the view that morality is
dependent on religion. (21)
 (ii) To what extent are the arguments in favour of
this view unsuccessful? (9)
June 2012
 3 (a) (i) Examine the arguments for and against
the view that morality is independent of religion.
(21)
 (ii) To what extent are these arguments
convincing?(9)