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The Moral Interpretation of Religion by Peter Byrne Pdf
The Moral Interpretation of Religion provides a critical examination of the traditional attempt to interpret religion in moral terms alone. He assesses historical attempts to reason directly from the basis of morality to the existence of a personal God.
Religion and Morality by Daniel Statman,Avi Sagi Pdf
Religion and Morality seeks to answer two fundamental questions regarding the relation between religion and morality. The first is the puzzle posed by Socrates, the so-called 'Euthyphro dilemma', which asks: is morality valuable by virtue of its intrinsic importance and worth, or is morality valuable because, and only because, God approves it and commands us to follow its dictates? The second question is raised by Kierkegaard in Fear and Trembling. He asks: Is a conflict between religion and morality possible? Does God ever demand that we neglect our moral commitments? The discussion on these questions is divided into three parts. In the first two parts, we discuss the idea that morality depends on religion. The authors distinguish two types of dependence: strong dependence, according to which the very existence, or validity, of moral obligations depends on God's command, and weak dependence, according to which though morality itself is independent of God, God (or belief in God) is necessary to enable human beings to know their moral duties and to carry them out. The authors reject the strong dependence thesis, as well as most versions of the weak dependence. The third part of the book discusses different versions of the view that religion might conflict with morality. The authors reject this view, and show that very few religious thinkers would follow it all the way through to its ultimate consequences. The book has implications for the philosophy of religion, in its emphasis on the centrality of the moral element in religion, and for moral philosophy, in its highlighting, among other things, of the nature of moral judgments.
Author : Peter J. Woodford Publisher : University of Chicago Press Page : 195 pages File Size : 47,6 Mb Release : 2018-03-28 Category : Philosophy ISBN : 9780226539928
The Moral Meaning of Nature by Peter J. Woodford Pdf
What, if anything, does biological evolution tell us about the nature of religion, ethical values, or even the meaning and purpose of life? The Moral Meaning of Nature sheds new light on these enduring questions by examining the significance of an earlier—and unjustly neglected—discussion of Darwin in late nineteenth-century Germany. We start with Friedrich Nietzsche, whose writings staged one of the first confrontations with the Christian tradition using the resources of Darwinian thought. The lebensphilosophie, or “life-philosophy,” that arose from his engagement with evolutionary ideas drew responses from other influential thinkers, including Franz Overbeck, Georg Simmel, and Heinrich Rickert. These critics all offered cogent challenges to Nietzsche’s appropriation of the newly transforming biological sciences, his negotiation between science and religion, and his interpretation of the implications of Darwinian thought. They also each proposed alternative ways of making sense of Nietzsche’s unique question concerning the meaning of biological evolution “for life.” At the heart of the discussion were debates about the relation of facts and values, the place of divine purpose in the understanding of nonhuman and human agency, the concept of life, and the question of whether the sciences could offer resources to satisfy the human urge to discover sources of value in biological processes. The Moral Meaning of Nature focuses on the historical background of these questions, exposing the complex ways in which they recur in contemporary philosophical debate.
Religious Ethics by William Schweiker,David A. Clairmont Pdf
An inclusive and innovative account of religious ethical thinking and acting in the world. Rather than merely applying existing forms of philosophical ethics, Religious Ethics defines the meaning of the field and presents a distinct and original method for ethical reflection through comparisons of world religious traditions. Written by leading scholars and educators in the field, this unique volume offers an innovative approach that reveals how religions concur and differ on moral matters, and provides practical guidance on thinking and living ethically. The book’s innovative method—integrating descriptive, normative, practical, fundamental, and metaethical dimensions of reflection—enables a far more complex and nuanced exploration of religious ethics than any single philosophical language, method, or theory can equal. First introducing the task of religious ethics, the book moves through each of the five dimensions of reflection to compare concepts such as good and evil, perplexity and wisdom, truth and illusion, and freedom and bondage in various theological contexts. Guides readers on understanding, assessing, and comparing the moral teachings and practices of world religions Applies a disciplined, scholarly approach to the subject of religious ethics Explores the distinctions between religious ethics and moral philosophy Provides a methodology which can be applied to comparative ethics for various religions Compares religious traditions to illuminate each of the five dimensions of ethical and moral reflection Religious Ethics: Meaning and Method will help anyone interested in the relation between religion and ethics in the modern world, including those involved in general and comparative religion studies, religious and comparative ethics, and moral theory.
Reflection on religion inevitably involves consideration of its relation to morality. When great evil is done to human beings, we may feel that something absolute has been violated. Can that sense, which is related to gratitude for existence, be expressed without religious concepts? Can we express central religious concerns, such as losing the self, while abandoning any religious metaphysic? Is moral obligation itself dependent on divine commands if it is to be objective, or is morality not only independent of religion, but its accuser if God is said to allow horrendous evils? In any case, what happens to the absolute claims of religion in what is, undeniably, a morally pluralistic world? These are the central questions discussed by philosophers of religion and moral philosophers in this collection. They do so in ways which bring new aspects to bear on these traditional issues.
Kant's Moral Religion argues that Kant's doctrine of religious belief if consistent with his best critical thinking and, in fact, that the "moral arguments"--along with the faith they justify--are an integral part of Kant's critical thinking.
Understanding Religious Ethics by Charles Mathewes Pdf
This accessible introduction to religious ethics focuses on the major forms of moral reasoning encompassing the three ‘Abrahamic’ religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Draws on a range of moral issues, such as examples arising from friendship, marriage, homosexuality, lying, forgiveness and its limits, the death penalty, the environment, warfare, and the meaning of work, career, and vocation Looks at both ethical reasoning and importantly, how that reasoning reveals insights into a religious tradition Investigates the resources available to address common problems confronting Abrahamic faiths, and how each faith explains and defends its moral viewpoints Offering concrete topics for interfaith discussions, this is a timely and insightful introduction to a fast-growing field of interest
A Brief Inquiry Into the Meaning of Sin and Faith by John Rawls Pdf
John Rawls never published anything about his own religious beliefs, but after his death two texts were discovered which shed light on the subject. The present volume includes these two texts, together with an Introduction that discusses their relation to Rawls’s published work, and an essay that places them theological context.
This book aims to reinvigorate discussions of moral arguments for God's existence. To open this debate, Baggett and Walls argue that God's love and moral goodness are perfect, without defect, necessary, and recognizable. After integrating insights from the literature of both moral apologetics and theistic ethics, they defend theistic ethics against a variety of objections and, in so doing, bolster the case for the moral argument for God's existence. It is the intention of the authors to see this aspect of natural theology resume its rightful place of prominence, by showing how a worldview predicated on the God of both classical theism and historical Christian orthodoxy has more than adequate resources to answer the Euthyphro Dilemma, speak to the problem of evil, illumine natural law, and highlight the moral significance of the incarnation and resurrection of Christ. Ultimately, the authors argue, there is principled reason to believe that morality itself provides excellent reasons to look for a transcendent source of its authority and reality, and a source that is more than an abstract principle.
When Orpheus, the legendary musician, poet and prophet, had his head torn off his shoulders and thrown into the river Hebrus, he kept singing as his head was carried along by the strong current. It's impossible to kill off some voices. Sometimes, the dead don't realize they're dead. God is dead, but doesn't know it. His morality is dead with him, but all across the world people still hear morality's ghostly voice and mistake it for something real and objective.Some people believe that God is the center of the moral universe. In fact, God is not moral at all. In this book, we rationally explore how it is impossible for either God or the Devil to serve any moral role whatsoever.Some people believe in moral realism (moral objectivism) - the claim that objective moral facts and moral values exist like Platonic Forms, independently of our perception of them or our feelings, beliefs, opinions or subjective attitudes towards them. Moral facts are deemed as real as mathematical facts, and moral judgments as certain as mathematical proofs. In fact, only mathematical facts are real. All other "facts" are manmade interpretations. As Nietzsche said, "There are no facts, only interpretations. ... There are no moral phenomena at all, but only a moral interpretation of phenomena."Mainstream religion, and its attendant morality, is the biggest possible misinterpretation of mathematical reality. People would behave entirely differently if they realized they inhabited a mathematical universe engaged in solving itself rather than a moral universe offering them a binary choice of heaven or hell, or positive or negative karma.Reality is about the optimization of knowledge, of understanding, of reason and logic. It is not about the optimization or minimization of "good" or "evil", which are just subjective human terms and labels. As Oscar Wilde said, "Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike."You would think that for a father to kill his son for no reason would seem to everyone to be an incontestable objective moral crime, yet the Christian God ordered Abraham to murder Isaac, and Abraham immediately agreed to do so. This unforgivable monster - an infernal father if ever there was one - is celebrated by three world religions, and billions of people, as a moral paragon, someone to be admired and emulated. That demonstrates that either these people have no moral compass and no moral sensibility at all, or all moral "facts" are anything that people want them to be, anything that serves their selfish agenda, which can never be a moral agenda by any conventional definition of morality, i.e. morality can never be that which you do because it suits you, regardless of others. What consideration did Abraham give to Isaac as he held his dagger to his son's throat? From Isaac's perspective, his father was immoral - willing to murder him to prove himself to his deity. Imagine if Isaac had worshiped a different God from Abraham. He would regard Abraham's God as the anti-God, the Devil.The moral con is the biggest con of all. It has been inflicted on the world by the priest-caste, the kingly-caste, and the super-rich elite to stop the people from accepting reason and logic as the means to organize and optimize society. The world rulers have plenty of use for billions of abject slaves on their knees praying to fictitious, invisible gods, and no use for billions of rational and logical men and women who can see through every lie the elite tell them to exploit them.Reason and logic are the means to achieve human liberation. That's why the elite have ensured that reason and logic are never taught, and everyone is instead subjected to insane religious faith and mysticism.Free yourself. Embrace reason and logic. Sapere aude.
God and Cosmos by David Baggett,Jerry L. Walls Pdf
Naturalistic ethics is the reigning paradigm among contemporary ethicists; in God and Cosmos, David Baggett and Jerry L. Walls argue that this approach is seriously flawed. This book canvasses a broad array of secular and naturalistic ethical theories in an effort to test their adequacy in accounting for moral duties, intrinsic human value, moral knowledge, prospects for radical moral transformation, and the rationality of morality. In each case, the authors argue, although various secular accounts provide real insights and indeed share common ground with theistic ethics, the resources of classical theism and orthodox Christianity provide the better explanation of the moral realities under consideration. Among such realities is the fundamental insight behind the problem of evil, namely, that the world is not as it should be. Baggett and Walls argue that God and the world, taken together, exhibit superior explanatory scope and power for morality classically construed, without the need to water down the categories of morality, the import of human value, the prescriptive strength of moral obligations, or the deliverances of the logic, language, and phenomenology of moral experience. This book thus provides a cogent moral argument for God's existence, one that is abductive, teleological, and cumulative.
“A thoughtful perspective on humans' capacity for moral behavior.” —Kirkus Reviews “A comprehensive introduction to religious skepticism.” —Publishers Weekly In What It Means to Be Moral: Why Religion Is Not Necessary for Living an Ethical Life, Phil Zuckerman argues that morality does not come from God. Rather, it comes from us: our brains, our evolutionary past, our ongoing cultural development, our social experiences, and our ability to reason, reflect, and be sensitive to the suffering of others. By deconstructing religious arguments for God–based morality and guiding readers through the premises and promises of secular morality, Zuckerman argues that the major challenges facing the world today—from global warming and growing inequality to religious support for unethical political policies to gun violence and terrorism—are best approached from a nonreligious ethical framework. In short, we need to look to our fellow humans and within ourselves for moral progress and ethical action. “In this brilliant, provocative, and timely book, Phil Zuckerman breaks down the myth that our morality comes from religion—compellingly making the case that when it comes to the biggest challenges we face today, a secular approach is the only truly moral one.” —Ali A. Rizvi, author of The Atheist Muslim
Though the revised edition of A Theory of Justice, published in 1999, is the definitive statement of Rawls's view, so much of the extensive literature on Rawls's theory refers to the first edition. This reissue makes the first edition once again available for scholars and serious students of Rawls's work.
Atheism: A Very Short Introduction by Julian Baggini Pdf
Do you think of atheists as immoral pessimists who live their lives without meaning, purpose, or values? Think again! Atheism: A Very Short Introduction sets out to dispel the myths that surround atheism and show how a life without religious belief can be positive, meaningful, and moral.
