Dennis Prager, in his Youtube video recorded on March 20, 2017 argues that If There Is No God, Murder Isn't Wrong. He contrasts the secular world with the judeo-christian world and concludes that in a secular world there can only be opinions about morality. In contrast in the judeo-christian world is predicated on a god of morality.
To make his point Prager Uses the example of murder to get at the meaning of the word wrong. He concludes that “only if god says murder is wrong is murder wrong.(Prager)”
Prager’s view brings up further questions. Does morality need a divine command to be objective or is that a contradiction? Can Morality be objective with a divine command or is that command influenced by personal feelings or opinions?
Dennis Prager thinks Morality is only objective if God tells people what and good and bad and morality would be relative if there was no one telling them what was good or bad.
Morality can be objective without god. Morality can’t be objective if it’s just what some authority told you was good or bad; it has to come from using your mind and reason to logically figure out what is good and what is bad for yourself.
Reason #1: Euthyphro’s dilemma is a greek term that gives two scenarios of ethics relating to god. It states that:
The First horn of the dilemma is; good is good because God wills it to be good
The Second horn is; God wills what is good because it is good(Koukl par 1).
If the first horn is true then morality isn’t objective it is arbitrary. If God were to give commands to kill with the first horn true then it would be moral to kill. It would be like if there was a magical unicorn that decided what was a pencil and what was not and if it decided a chair was a pencil then chairs were now pencils. God could just change his mind and for people who think the bible is about what God has done then god has commanded people to kill many times.
If the second horn is true then you don’t need god to know what is moral. It would be like someone telling you the sky was blue because it is blue. You don’t need this person to say the sky is blue for it to be blue; he was just telling you what it was.
if something is moral because god said it was moral then morality is arbitrary but
if god says it is moral because it is moral then you don’t need god to know what is moral.
Connect Evidence to Claim through strong warrant
Prager is assuming that the first statement is true while also assuming morality is not based upon opinion. This causes a contradiction.
Reason #2: places that reject the divine command theory of morality have a lower crime rate.
If you look at the crime rates, prosperity, equality, freedom, women’s rights, human rights, educational attainment and life expectancy of countries you will find that in secular countries they are higher and the most religious countries have the highest “violent crime rates, high infant mortality rates, high poverty rates and high rates of corruption”(Zuckerman Par. 4 ).
If you just want to look at how much more peaceful secular societies are The global peace index shows that “Each of the 10 safest and most peaceful nations in the world is also among the most secular... Most of the least safe and peaceful nations, conversely, are extremely religious.(Par. 6 Zuckerman)”
The countries that are the most secular, “Sweden, Japan, Norway and the Netherlands,” also have the lowest homicide rates(Par. 5 Zuckerman). Also the countries that are the most theistic, “Colombia, Mexico, El Salvador and Brazil” have the highest Homicide rates.
This shows that the notion that if god didn’t tell people that murder was wrong then people would kill is wrong. In the places where people listen to god’s commands there are more homicide rates and the places where people don’t listen to god’s commands there are less. It seems that religion causes people to be less moral not more moral and that for someone to be moral they need to reject the idea of a god of morality.
Reason # 3 The use of The Categorical imperative which is derived from first principles, The law of non contradiction and the consistency principle, will lead to a very peaceful society. Actions that derive from first principles lead to moral behavior.
Categorical imperative, which derives from first principles, says to
Behave in such a way that a reasonable generalization of your action to a universal rule will lead to a benefit.
If you cannot will that everyone follows the same rule, your rule is not a moral one.
It is basically the the golden rule. Treat others the way you would like to be treated. (KANTIAN)
The Non aggression principle is a principal that stems from the Categorical imperative and first principles. It states that One shouldn’t initiate force against another and only time to use force is in self defense. This principle can be universally followed by everyone and if it were the world would be very peaceful.
If you start from first principles it will lead you to objective moral action.
In our current secular world the rate of death due to wars have diminished from the time periods in which morality was based upon religion doctrine.
Even if individuals rely on the judeo-christion value that morality is due to the existence of god, the forces of science and reason may overcome that irrationality.
People should embrace the use of objective values based on reason and logic by using reason to know what is moral rather than using an authority figure.
Dennis Prager, in other youtube videos, agrees that the use of reason is better than the use of feelings or mystical whims. It would be well to support his comments in these areas where he does use logic and reason.
Works cited
"KANTIAN ETHICS." , www.csus.edu/indiv/g/gaskilld/ethics/kantian%20ethics.htm.
Koukl, Greg. "Euthyphro's Dilemma." Stand to Reason, 7 Dec. 2012, www.str.org/articles/euthyphro-s-dilemma#.Xl3w_JNKjUK.
Prager, Dennis, actor. If There Is No God, Murder . 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrcQ_PTkVD4. Accessed 2 Feb. 2020.
Zuckerman, Phil. "Op-Ed: Think religion makes society less violent? Think again." Los Angeles Times, 30 Oct. 2015, www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-1101-zuckerman-violence-secularism-20151101-story.html. Accessed 2 Feb. 2020.