We’re going to start with some basic questions on your own experience of thinking through religion and ethics.
Warm-up exercise:
“To be a good person, one must…” Does your answer need religion? Does it need community, family, or reason?
Discussion
- Which has shaped your sense of right and wrong more, explicit teaching (a text, a teacher, a sermon) or what you saw people around you actually do?
- Do you or your family take part in any ritual, festival, or practice (making offerings, fasting, visiting a temple or shrine, honoring ancestors)? What does it do for you, and is it connected to how you treat people?
- Describe a time you disagreed with someone about a moral issue because of their religious (or non-religious) background. How did you handle it?
- Do you think people from very different traditions can agree on some basic moral rules? Which ones, and what would explain the agreement?
- Are there moral ideas in your tradition (if you have one) that you think have no equivalent elsewhere? Are these moral ideas that are applicable only to people within this tradition, or to everyone?
We’ll think about these questions first, then talk in small groups, then feed back in the larger group.
The Euthyphro Problem
We started off with a problem in Plato’s Euthyphro: how are we to measure ethics? After all, having no common measure is a cause of conflict and trouble.
But this is not what is known as the Euthyphro problem. What is called the Euthyphro problem comes from later on in the text. We’ll start reading from (9e).
Talking about the Euthyphro Problem
- Think of a moral rule from your family, culture, or community that is backed by a religious or traditional authority. Do you follow it because that authority says so, or because you think it is good? How can you tell the difference?
- Imagine your tradition’s highest authority (a god, a scripture, a teacher, the ancestors) told you to do something you were sure was wrong. What would you do, and what does your answer reveal about where you think goodness comes from?
- When people in your community explain why something is right or wrong, do they usually appeal to “because we were told” or “because it is good for people”? Does the answer change depending on who is speaking?
- Does your own tradition seem to answer the Euthyphro question, either explicitly or in how people behave? If you come from a tradition without gods or divine commands, what plays the role of authority instead?
Homework
Your homework is to read the paper by Ara Norenzayan and Azim F. Shariff on religious prosociality, and leave your comments on Canvas!