Saturday, March 13, 2010

Brother Jed’s god and the Euthyphro Dilemma

When speaking in front of the Arizona State University Secular Free Thought Society, Brother Jed approached his solution to the Euthyphro Dilemma:

“Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious; or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?”

This is the presentation for Jed:

(1) Is it moral because Jed’s god says it; or

(2) Does Jed’s god say it because it’s moral.

According to Brother Jed, he ascribes to the latter. Jed’s god says things because they are moral.

This interests me because it suggests that not only is morality external to Jed’s god—fundamentally meaning that Jed’s god is capable of saying/doing immoral things—but it also means that Jed suggests that he has a moral litmus test to apply to Jed’s god’s sayings to determine that they are moral according to this external standard.

I wonder if Jed would be willing license out his moral litmus test; because it may come in extremely handy to the rest of us. Also, I’d like to see other people apply Brother Jed’s moral litmus test to moral situations so that its limitations and capabilities can be studied. And, I include, that this might preclude the possibility that Brother Jed’s moral litmus test (1) does not exist; (2) does not actually function in any sense that can be corroborated with reality; or (3) has so many limitations or failure states that it’s rendered useless involving practical situations.

Someone out there should ask Jed to license the technology he’s using to determine the moral certitude of Jed’s god’s commandments.

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