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well one of the most common objections
that opponents of religion make is that
there's no real relationship between
belief in God and morality so a lot of
atheists agnostics get upset when Thea
suggests that somehow not believing God
will conduce toward a moral collapse no
often say things like well it's from the
consensus of human race over time it's
from the intuitions of decent people
that we get our moral principles etc etc
well let me just say this right off the
bat I don't think atheists agnostics are
automatically bad people and they can't
have some sense of morality and I'll say
a little bit more about that but I will
say this there is a very strong and
important connection between morality
and belief in God and non belief in God
will indeed over time conduce toward a
relative ization of our morality so I
will maintain that and try to make that
argument now by looking at some of the
really fundamental principles of
Catholic moral philosophy let me begin
by analyzing a human act something as
simple as what I'm doing right now
so I'm recording this video well why am
i doing that well I want to do my you
know weekly YouTube commentary which
I've you know agreed to do okay well how
come I want to do that well I want to
communicate the truth of the Catholic
faith to people well why do you want to
do that well because the truth is
something valuable in itself see if you
analyze any act even the simplest one in
the way I just suggested you'll see a
number of instrumental moves you know
you will something because you will it
for the sake of something else but
eventually you have to come to some kind
of bedrock where you say no that's just
good in itself that's a basic or
irreducible value and this is in this
instance truth or you know another
example just before of recording this I
took a swig from a plastic water bottle
how come
well I was thirsty well so why did I
worry about that well hydrating your
body is good for your health well why am
i worried about my health well health
conduces to life why do I want that
well I've reached another kind of
bedrock level it's a basic good or
fundamental value life which has
provided the foundation for these
particular moral choices Catholic moral
philosophy and theology recognizes a
number of these call them basic goods
that's John finishes term or fundamental
values that's what dietrich von
Hildebrand called them the foundations
of the moral life thomas aquinas called
them along with life and truth you'd
find justice for example friendship
beauty etc these are the basic grammar
if you want of the moral life they
provide the foundation without which the
moral life will in time collapse into
subjectivism now now remember what Pope
Benedict said about a dictatorship of
relativism what was he worried about he
was worried about precisely the
occluding of these fundamental values
think of Catholic moral philosophers who
worry about this Reni n't subjectivism
in our culture I mean what's the problem
with that I do what I want you do what
you want well the problem is these
fundamental values are being forgotten
and the self legislating will is
becoming predominant here I always think
of the great Iris Murdoch who is Irish
philosopher and novelist and her
wonderful book called the sovereignty of
the good she was coming up against this
a prevalent modern attitude her point
she makes in a million different ways is
that the good is not produced by the
will it's not subservient to the will
but rather the good is sovereign over
the will it imposes itself on the will
think of Dietrich von Hildebrand again
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony well when you
confront that you're confronting a value
that you didn't invent it rather has a
claim on you or when you see something
of great moral virtue it's a value that
you can't dispense with and is not a
matter of your own choice so this is
what Catholic moral philosophy keeps
insisting upon is the objectivity of
these of these great values it's also
why we speak of intrinsically evil acts
in our tradition let's say Acts which
are by their very nature wrong
independent of the motivation of the
agent independent of the circumstances
that circumscribed the act so all forms
of relativism will say some version of
well you know your intention was good or
given those circumstances even this can
be justified
Kevon moral philosophy grounded in the
basic good says no some acts are by
their very nature intrinsically
repugnant to a basic good let's say the
direct killing of the innocent that's an
assault on the good of life in a way
that cannot be justified by any
intention of the agent or any
circumstance some goods are so
fundamental that they cannot be opposed
without deep moral guilt so that's
intrinsically evil acts okay that's a
sort of basic overview of Catholic moral
philosophy
it's insisting on the objectivity of
these moral goods so you might be
following this argument so far I'm
saying okay I get it
I get it but still how come an atheist
couldn't hold to that and be fine I mean
couldn't a theist hold everything you're
saying and accept an integral moral life
well he could and and I've said that
already he could perceive these basic
values but there is a key relationship
now between these values and God and go
back to the act let's analyze the Act
again so let's say by this very act of
recording this video in some way I have
achieved
the good of the truth not the totality
of truth but I've achieved a certain
truth I've honored the truth in a
certain way by doing this video is my
will satisfied by that achievement well
no obviously that's why I've done I've
done 300 of these videos because I keep
trying to find the greater truth say
more about the truth life is enhanced by
the act of drinking water what does it
mean I've experienced the fullness of
life by that act well obviously not in
point of fact the will is ordered toward
these basic goods in their unconditioned
form if we really pay attention to the
will we'll notice that it wants not just
particular truths it wants the truth
itself it wants not just particular
goods particular modes of life
particular types of beauty particular
types of friendship it wants all those
goods in their unconditioned form that's
why burner and Lonergan said the mind
wants to know everything about
everything
even as you've come to know a particular
truth it opens up all this whole range
of new questions
seit Agustin said our heart is restless
until it rests in thee now I brought God
in the picture a little bit
surreptitiously but not illegitimately
because God in our tradition is the name
we give to these fundamental moral goods
in their unconditioned form that's what
God is God's not one more thing in the
world as I've said a thousand times God
is the unconditioned act of being itself
which is another way of saying the
unconditioned true the unconditioned
good the unconditioned life
unconditioned beauty unconditioned
justice so the will by a natural
trajectory moves out toward God now back
it up go the other way now we can begin
to see that these objective values that
even the most ordinary act reveals these
these ordinary these of values are in
fact reflections of and part
dissipations in the unconditioned good
true beautiful etc they are as CS Lewis
correctly said signposts to God
see that's why the moral life these
moral values are reflective of an
indicative of God these values in their
unconditioned form and this shows now
something and I'll end with this this
shows why the negation of God it might
not happen immediately see in some ways
we're still in our culture going on the
fumes of an old older form of culture
but the negation of God and it's done
steadily and with intent and purpose
will eventually conduce toward a shaking
and occluding and eventually eliminating
of these objective moral values which in
turn will lead to what we see a lot of
today the apatheia sizing of the ego of
the self legislating ego so I'm gonna
argue that though you know an atheist
yes could perceive these basic goods in
the long run read Peter Hitchens on this
by the way Chris Richards brother read
him on is very interesting in the long
run a steady negation of God will lead
to a moral erosion and that's why I stay
with Dostoyevsky who said back in the
nineteenth century
if God's existence is denied then
anything becomes possible or better
permissible that's the problem
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you
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