If you think there is a God, you should only regard Its speech about morality as direct evidence (that is, bring your own opinions into correspondence) if you have reason to believe that Its utility function or other moral criteria resemble your own and that It is being honest with you. Natural selection has some goddish properties (such as being our creator), but we don’t say regard the outputs of evolutions as evidence because we don’t regard inclusive fitness as a good validator of moral arguments. In other words, some particular process being labeled “God” doesn’t suddenly create a free ride with respect to moral advice, any more than Suicide Rock.
True but on the other hand, we’re left with moral relativism as you yourself pointed out in your babyeaters parable.
The only reasonable thing we can say about morals wrt to any posited God is that morals given by a God are an absolute guideline as defined by a “higher authority”.
The systems of laws we have evolved as guidelines today in western countries are not bad in terms of maximization of benefits for most of the population, but they are subject to corruption by free-riders and those who seek to change the rules for their own benefit even if others lose.
Appeal to God doesn’t really push in either direction on moral relativism, as Socrates showed with the Euthyphro question. If X is moral because God says so, then morality is just whatever God says it is, and thus morality is just as objective or relative as it would be in the case where morality is whatever I say it is. And if God says so because X is objectively moral, then I could just as well say so because X is objectively moral.
Except God would be the omnipotent and omniscient creator of the universe. If he truthfully says something is objectively true, it’s objectively true, and if you disagree, you’re wrong.
If you think there is a God, you should only regard Its speech about morality as direct evidence (that is, bring your own opinions into correspondence) if you have reason to believe that Its utility function or other moral criteria resemble your own and that It is being honest with you. Natural selection has some goddish properties (such as being our creator), but we don’t say regard the outputs of evolutions as evidence because we don’t regard inclusive fitness as a good validator of moral arguments. In other words, some particular process being labeled “God” doesn’t suddenly create a free ride with respect to moral advice, any more than Suicide Rock.
True but on the other hand, we’re left with moral relativism as you yourself pointed out in your babyeaters parable. The only reasonable thing we can say about morals wrt to any posited God is that morals given by a God are an absolute guideline as defined by a “higher authority”.
The systems of laws we have evolved as guidelines today in western countries are not bad in terms of maximization of benefits for most of the population, but they are subject to corruption by free-riders and those who seek to change the rules for their own benefit even if others lose.
Any case, good post.
Appeal to God doesn’t really push in either direction on moral relativism, as Socrates showed with the Euthyphro question. If X is moral because God says so, then morality is just whatever God says it is, and thus morality is just as objective or relative as it would be in the case where morality is whatever I say it is. And if God says so because X is objectively moral, then I could just as well say so because X is objectively moral.
Except God would be the omnipotent and omniscient creator of the universe. If he truthfully says something is objectively true, it’s objectively true, and if you disagree, you’re wrong.