Fun class today. We discussed the conditions under which morality is moral.
Premise: If moral truths exist (and not just customs) they are universally binding for people at all times and places.
Thesis: The moral law can only be moral if all people are capable of knowing it and following it, because it is unjust or immoral to hold people responsible for a duty they couldn’t have known and couldn’t fulfill.
Conclusion 1: Morality cannot be moral if it can only be known through authority (eg, a revelation from god, a priest, a teacher, or sacred texts) because these encounters are contingent and therefore do not meet the requirements of the above. A god or gods that rendered this the only way to know morality would be unjust, immoral, and there unworthy of veneration.
Conclusion 2: Religion and morality are distinct, ie, the former is not a condition of the latter. Consequently moral truths are not dependent on divinities or authorities.
Conclusion 3: Morality can only be moral if it can be known through reason, because reason is the only capacity universally shared, even if it’s not universally used.