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Rebecca asked:
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Two questions:
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- Is morality dependent upon religion?
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- What is truth?
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============
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- No, morality is not dependent upon religion. Plato (through Socrates) argues quite convincingly in
the dialogue Euthyphrothat — to put it in modern terms — things are not right (morally correct)
because a god says they are right, but rather that a god will say those things are right because they
are already right. So if there is an independent way to say whether something is right (morally correct)
or not, then god is not necessary. Just what it is that makes things morally correct is more difficult to
say.
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My favorite example of this is the Abraham and Isaac story from the Bible (especially as told by Bob
Dylan in the first verse of Highway 61:
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God said to Abraham "kill me a son", Abe said "man, you must be putting me on". God said "Abe",
Abe said "What?", God said "You can do what you want, Abe, but the next time you see me coming
you better run". Abe said "Where do you want this killing done?" God said "Down on highway 61".
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So, why did Abe think God was putting him on? Because to kill an innocent son is immoral, no matter
whether God tells you to or not. Even (especially?) if He threatens you.
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- If I knew the answer to, 'What is truth?', you would be reading it in my bestselling book which would
have made me the most famous philosopher of all time.
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Seriously, there are many views about what truth is. Briefly and roughly, the correspondence view
says it is whatever beliefs corresponds to reality. The coherence view says it is whatever set of
beliefs coheres (fits) best with all other beliefs and experiences. The consensus view says it is
whatever beliefs are held in common amongst those who have jointly tried to find it. The pragmatic
view says it is whatever beliefs turn out to be the most useful to have.
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There are many versions of each, and they are not all mutually exclusive either. There are also some
other theories on truth I haven't mentioned.
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Tim Sprod
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