Chapter 05 Chapter Summary

Cahn argues that morality does not rest on belief in an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good God. Even granting the existence of such a being, we would not necessarily know which actions God wills us to perform. Neither human moral intuitions (presumably implanted in us by God) nor the holy writings of the world’s religions settle the issue; serious conflicts exist in both areas. The question raised in Plato’s Euthyphro—Is something wrong because God says it’s wrong, or does God say it’s wrong because it is wrong?—presents additional difficulties. In the first place, it entails the unsettling conclusion that actions such as adultery, murder, and theft could be right if God commanded them. Second, it undermines the possibility of praising the goodness of God’s commands, as to say “God is good” would be saying nothing more than “God is God.” Cahn thus concludes that “what is right is independent of what God commands, for what God commands must conform to an independent standard in order to be right.” Religious commitments do not by themselves settle moral questions.