Controversy Between the Existence of God

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In “The Brothers Karamazov” by Fyodor Dostoevsky made a famous claim that establishes the link between the existence of God and morality. Apart from the controversy related to the scope of the quotation, the discussion on the proper translation and interpretation of the words of Ivan Karamazov. For instance, in his article “Dostoevsky did not say it” D.Cortesi claims that Dostoevsky did not make such claim (Cortesi 1). However, the research by Russian-speaking authors shows that the original text of “The Brothers Karamazov” contains the statement under study (Volkov 1). Coming to the scope of the claim, one should concentrate on the reasons for making such claim, as well as the relation between the moral beliefs of secular humanists and the beliefs under study.

When one says that the non-existence of God leads to the fact that everything is permitted, one implies that there is a crucial link between the existence of God and morality. In other word, it may be summarized that the statement under study suggests viewing God as the source of morality. This suggestion brings one close to the divine command theory. As one of most well known meta-ethical theories, divine command theory lies in claiming that considering the action morally good is equal to viewing the action as the one, being commanded by God. It is suggested that what is moral is called forth by what God commands, and the only way to be moral is to follow the commands of God.

The statement by Dostoevsky is directly related to the scope of the divine command theory, as it is also based on viewing God as the main source of moral norms, and considering morality impossible without the existence of God. Let us consider the reasons that may have led to both the creation of th...

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...litics. Therefore, there are various historical examples of religious norms that contradicted the moral norms, elaborated on by secular humanists, as well as legal norms.

Above-mentioned arguments lead me to the conclusion that the identification of religious and moral norms, exemplified by Fyodor Dostoevsky, cannot be viewed as a proper approach to the detection of the roots of moral norms. However, religion-based moral norms and the ones, containing in the works of secular humanists and legislation have much in common and often exert simultaneous influence on the same social relations.

Works Cited

Blackburn, S. Ethics: a very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. Print.

Cortesi, D.E. Dostoevsky didn’t say it. The Secular Web, 2000. Web.

Volkov, A.I. Dostoevsky did say it: a response to D.E.Cortesi. The Secular Web, 2011. Web.

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