Leonard asked:

I am a student in my second philosophy class, which is ethical theory. We are now debating whether
morals come from religion or if not were do they come from. I am in the clouds and would appreciate
your guidance.

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If your question is does morality issue from the word of God, then the answer is no.

Religion claims that one should X because God wills that one should X (where X is a moral action).
But from statements of fact e.g. God wills that X, we cannot derive statements of value e.g. One
should X.

Therefore just because God wills something this does not mean that we should must or ought do it.

What is needed is some prior reason to do what God wills. But what could this reason be?

It cannot be that God wills that we should do what God wills because this only pushes the question
back. So it must be a reason independent of God's will. There could still be a role for God and religion
once we have this reason, but now God would be merely a reporter of morality rather than the author.
Then the reason we do what God wills is that we see that what God wills is the right thing to do and
this is the reason why he wills it.

If morality does not come from God and religion is the vehicle of God's will then religion cannot come
from religion either. So where does it come from? Perhaps morality is a natural feature of the world.
Aristotle for example thought that humans have a final end, or 'telos' in nature towards which we
strive toward. This end is live 'the good life' as a virtuous person. under this conception morality just is
a product of our being a part of the world and having a certain constitution. Or take Hume, he thought
that acts were right when they evoked a sentiment of approval in most people. Some philosophers
have thought that morality could be established by the faculty of reason, that morality is a rational
requirement.

The point is that not a great deal rests on whether God can tell us which actions are moral, because
we would need some independent reason to believe what God said anyway. The status of morality is
not undermined because it cannot issue from God's will.

Brian Tee
Dept of Philosophy
University of Sheffield