1. Religion and Ethics
1. Does morality depend on religion?
2. Is religious ethics different from secular ethics?

2. What is holiness?
Being holy.
Doing what is dear to the gods.

3. Euthypho’s Dilemma:
“Do the gods love holiness because it is holy, or is it holy because the gods love it?”
- Socrates in Plato’s Euthyphro

4. Divine Command Theory:
The good is that which God wills or commands.
compare with . . .
God commands that which is good.

5. 1. Morality originates with God.
2. Moral rightness means willed by God; moral wrongness means being against the will of God.
3. Morality is based on divine will, not on independent reasons for acting.

6. Objections:
Could God will just anything to be good?

7. Reply:
God’s will is always good.
Objection:
The good = that which God wills.
God’s will = the good.
Thus, the good is the good.

8. Abraham and Isaac
If God commanded you to kill your philosophy professor, would you do it?

9. Things God Can’t Do:

10. If God did not exist, then everything is permitted.
- Dostoevsky

11. State
Unsolved Murder Rate
1. District of Columbia
56.1%
2. Illinois
55.4%
3. Maryland
46.1%
4. New York
44.0%
5. California
43.9%

12. Do moral principles override nonmoral principles?
The Gauguin Case: Should he have abandoned his family to fulfill his dream?

13. Would it be wrong if everyone agreed to permanent sterilization?
The Posterity Problem
Would it be wrong if everyone agreed to permanent sterilization?

14. The Problem of Evil:

15. The Problem of Evil
Existence of God vs. Existence of suffering
Types of evil:
Moral
Natural

16. The Argument from Evil
God is all-loving, perfectly good.
God is omniscient.
God is omnipotent.
Evil exists.
If God (1-3) exists, there would be no evil.
Therefore, God does not exist.

17. "Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able
"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"
--Epicurus

18. Theodicy: the attempt to justify God's permitting evil to occur in the world

19. Theodicy: the attempt to justify God's permitting evil to occur in the world
The Greater Goods Defense: Evil exists because it is necessary to achieve a greater good.
Evil and suffering needed for “soul-making”

20. Theodicy: the attempt to justify God's permitting evil to occur in the world
The Greater Goods Defense: Evil exists because it is necessary to achieve a greater good.
Evil and suffering needed for “soul-making”
The Free Will Defense: God could not create creatures who have freedom of will but are incapable of doing evil

21. The Natural Order Defense
In order for there to be free choices, there has to be a stable, reliable order of natural cause and effect
C. S. Lewis: The Problem of Pain

22. Evil is a punishment.
Evil is justified because of the Fall.
Evil is caused by the devil.
Evil is justified by appealing to the afterlife.
Evil is a way of testing one’s faith.