Thursday, February 02, 2006

Morality

Q Jew's current post has me thinking: Where does morality come from? Is it out there, and absolute; or is it defined by God?

Let's look at the second possibility: If morality is defined by God, doesn't that make morality sort of arbitrary? Wouldn't it mean that, before God said it was wrong, murder was not immoral?

And if it was immoral before God said so, then the argument that religion is essential to morality takes a blow. Because if morality has nothing to do with God, shouldn't atheists be able to tap into it?