Does Morality depends on God?

University of Oxford - Philosophy Gym - Department of Continuing Education

My aim in this essay is to show that morality does not depend on God, because, today there is not a strong agreement / co - operation, between religions, for instance the Humanist position tells that, inside every human being there is an innate sense on Co-operation, a natural tendency to establish a democratic set of rules, actually, responsible human beings are able to built a good evolution of moral principles (i.e. declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations).

Another reason is that they tend to promote their supremacies rather than to establish an ethical interpretation of their differences, about concepts of morality based on empathy. In support of my
thesis there is the following phrase:

There are deeper moral issue because a religion that needs the power of a state and the threat of punishment for criticism loses its persuasiveness and its moral character. We should progress toward a universal civilisation that will flourish on the free exchange of ideas and the critical examination of each other’s beliefs in a true celebration of our common humanity.

Source: IHEU “Combating Defamation of Religions”

I will develop a brief introduction to Religion and Ethics and an ethical construct in support of my thesis, then I will argue what is the purpose of ethics, and its main systems.

An interesting question is: If morality depends on religion?

If we analyse the theory called Divine Command Theory (DCT), this is possible, because according to DCT its ethical principles are simply commands of God.

Without God, there is not a universally valid morality, in support of this theory,
for example, Dostoevsky wrote: If God does not exist, everything, is
permissible”.

According to Bertrand Russell morality does not needs a God because

“Science has removed the possibility of religious faith, so the only path left is
stoic resignation”.

In conclusion a scientific answer is negative, because this is irrational, and
morality does not need a God.

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Cheers

Italo