Preface

Summary

Ethics and Religion explores some of the major philosophical issues that link these two important areas of life. For many people, the burning issue is whether God is the source of morality and whether ethics is possible without religion. There are two traditional views here, with many variations. Divine command theory says that God's will creates the moral order (so ethical truths are true because of God's will), whereas natural law accepts ethical truths that don't depend on God's will (but perhaps depend on his reason or on his creation). Although I favor natural law, I try to develop strong and defensible versions of both views. With both views, I'll try to show how belief in God can deepen ethics – as it can deepen every area of life.

I also deal with ethics and atheism: how atheists object on ethical grounds to belief in God and how they view ethics; I'll also respond to their objections.

I hit many related topics, such as how to develop divine command theory (e.g., through semantic definitions or property identity); how we can know God's will; how to understand God's wisdom, love, and goodness; how to develop natural law (including practical reason and the golden rule); how evolution and science relate to ethics and religion; what difference belief in God makes to ethics; what duties we have toward those of other perspectives on faith; whether militant atheists make a good case against religion; atheistic religion; the problem of evil; and the fine-tuning argument.

Is there anything new to say about ethics and religion? I think so. There's been much activity on this during the last few years, and my book argues for some innovative ideas.

This book is part of the Cambridge Studies in Religion, Philosophy, and Society series, so the book is simply written, assumes little previous knowledge, and should be accessible to advanced undergraduates. But the book is also deep enough for graduate students, seminarians, other ministry students, teachers, and experts in the area. It could be used in various courses, including ones in philosophy of religion, moral philosophy, and moral theology. The clear style should make it accessible to sophisticated general readers. There's much interest in ethics and religion these days, and I hope that this book will fill a need.