Moral codes turn out to be logically extraneous to each of these competing philosophical theories alike. And if such a code is to be integrated with either of them in a wider system, the ethical component must be imported from elsewhere. In the case of theism, it will emerge that neither the attribution of omnibenevolence to God nor the invocation of divine commandments enables its theology to give a cogent justification for any particular actionable moral code. Theism, no less than atheism, is itself morally sterile: Concrete ethical codes are autonomous with respect to either of them. Just as a system of morals can be tacked onto theism, so also atheism may be embedded in a secular humanism in which concrete principles of humane rights and wrongs are supplied on other grounds. Though atheism itself is devoid of any specific moral precepts, secular humanism evidently need not be. By the same token, a suitably articulated form of secular humanism can rule out some modes of conduct while enjoining others, no less than a religious code in which concrete ethical injunctions have been externally adjoined to theism (e.g., "do not covet thy neighbor's wife"). Therefore, it should hardly occasion surprise that theism is not logically necessary as one of the premisses of a systematic moral code, any more than it is sufficient. And this failure of logical indispensability patently discredits Dostoyevsky's affirmation of it via Smerdyakov's dictum in The Brothers Karamazov: "If God doesn't exist, all things are permissible."

The Poverty of Theistic Morality Sunday, November 3, 2013 @ 11:01pm