Jason Thibodeau

[ Author Bio ]

Do Atheists Need a Moral Theory to be Moral Realists? (2012)

Despite the power and influence of the Euthyphro dilemma, many apologists maintain that theism alone has the resources to account for objective moral properties. These authors dispute the commonly held view that the argument of the Euthyphro demonstrates that morality must be independent of God (especially as this argument is applied to theories that ground morality in the character of God as opposed to His commands). They argue in addition that regardless of the outcome of that debate, a nontheistic worldview is not compatible with belief in objective morality. In this paper I demonstrate that the argument that there is no viable atheistic account of the ground of morality depends upon the mistaken assumption that theism itself has the kind of moral theory that atheism allegedly lacks.

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Jason Thibodeau is Assistant Professor of philosophy at Cypress College in Cypress, California. See his Secular Web Library bio and Secular Web Library author page for more.