Religiosity, Spirituality and the Moral

[Gavin Duffy]

It is my opinion that an objective morality is not possible without God.

I recently read an interesting paper suggesting the reason for this -- "religion self-galvanises authority within the morality of its constituents; and that respect for authority is not only implicit but demanded. This is achieved by making gods the authors of sacred canons or values that authenticate society—in the minds of believers—as having an existence above a mere aggregation of its individuals and institutions” - which effectively places them, within the minds of its members, as immunised to scrutiny or contest.

It is my further belief that all other moral codes in the world are necessarily subjective or relative and consequently are the source of conflict with others who disagree.

An author like Sam Harris would argue the contrary; that science, given what we know about human well being can tell us what we ought to do (alluding to Hume's is-ought problem). That if we take human well-being and suffering as the baseline for moral action, Universal truths may be carved out. This is not to say I agree with him, just thought it is an interesting and relevant topic.