Moral arguments for God's existence and their critics

Overview

Moral argument in Aquinas, general form of the moral argument and freud's account of conscience.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   State the moral argument in Aquinas.

   Model answer

   Aquinas's fourth way argues from degrees of perfection: things are better or worse, comparison implies a maximum, and that maximum which is the cause of all goodness is God.

2. 2

   Set out Newman's argument from conscience.

   Model answer

   Newman argued that conscience carries a sense of obligation and of answering to someone, which points beyond ourselves to a personal lawgiver.

3. 3

   State the general form of the moral argument.

   Model answer

   Objective moral values exist, objective moral values require a transcendent source, therefore that source exists.

4. 4

   How does the argument depend on moral realism?

   Model answer

   If moral claims are only expressions of preference or social convention there is nothing objective to explain, so the argument requires that moral values are real and binding.

5. 5

   What is Freud's account of conscience?

   Model answer

   Freud held that conscience is the super-ego, the internalised voice of parental and social authority formed in childhood, so its felt authority is psychological rather than divine.

6. 6

   How does Freud explain religion itself?

   Model answer

   Freud treated religion as an illusion born of infantile helplessness and the wish for a protecting father, and as a collective neurosis.

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.