Hostname: page-component-54dcc4c588-smtgx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-09-20T05:41:57.246Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

God and the ontological foundation of morality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

WES MORRISTON
WES MORRISTON
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0232 email: Wes.Morriston@Colorado.EDU
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In recent years, William Lane Craig has vigorously championed a moral argument for God's existence. The backbone of Craig's argument is the claim that only God can provide a ‘sound foundation in reality’ for morality. The present article has three principal aims. The first is to interpret and clarify the account of the ontological foundation of morality proposed by Craig. The second is to press home an important objection to that account. The third is to expose the weakness of Craig's case for saying that without God morality would be groundless and illusory.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 1 , March 2012 , pp. 15 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Adams, Robert M. (1987) ‘Moral arguments for theistic belief’ in Adams, The Virtue of Faith and Essays in Philosophical Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 144–163.Google Scholar
Alston, William P. (2002) ‘What Euthyphro should have said’, in Craig, William Lane (ed.) Philosophy of Religion: A Reader and Guide (New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press), 283–298.Google Scholar
Baker, Lynne Rudder (2000) Persons and Bodies: A Constitution View (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byrne, Peter (2009) ‘Is morality undercut by evolutionary theory?’ Philo, 3, 116–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craig, William Lane (2007) ‘Question 111: divine simplicity’, Reasonable Faith with William Lane Craig (http://www.reasonablefaith.org/site/). Accessed 21 August, 2010.Google Scholar
Craig, William Lane & Antony, Louise (2008) ‘Is God necessary for morality?’ Video of a debate at the University of Massachusetts on 10 April, 2008 (http://www.veritas.org/Campus/Recordings.aspx?cid=14). Accessed 19 August, 2010.Google Scholar
Craig, William Lane & Kagan, Shelly (2009) ‘Is God necessary for morality?’ Video of a debate at Columbia University on 24 February, 2009 (http://www.veritas.org/Campus/Recordings.aspx?cid=10#e103). Accessed 19 August, 2010.Google Scholar
Craig, William Lane & Kurtz, Paul et al. (2009) ‘The debate: is goodness without God good enough?’ and ‘The Most Gruesome of Guests’, in Garcia, Robert K. & King, Nathan L. (eds) Is Goodness Without God Enough: A Debate on Faith, Secularism, and Ethics (Plymouth UK: Rowman & Littlefield), 25–48 and 167–188.Google Scholar
Craig, William Lane & Sinnott-Armstrong, Walter (2004) God? A Debate between a Christian and an Atheist (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Huemer, Michael (2005) Ethical Intuitionism (New York: Palgrave Macmillan).Google Scholar
Pruss, Alexander (2009) ‘Another step in divine command dialectics’, Faith and Philosophy, 26, 432–439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruse, Michael (1994) ‘Evolutionary ethics and Christian morality: are they in harmony?’ Zygon, 29, 5–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shafer-Landau, Russ (2004) What Ever Happened to Good and Evil? (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Street, Sharon (2006) ‘A Darwinian dilemma for realist theories of moral value’, Philosophical Studies, 127, 109–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zagzebski, Linda (1990) ‘What if the impossible had been actual?’ in Beatty, Michael, (ed.) Christian Theism and the Problems of Philosophy (Notre Dame IN: University of Notre Dame Press), 165–183.Google Scholar