A Consistency Challenge for Moral and Religious Beliefs
Teaching Philosophy, Vol. 32, No. 2, pp.127-151, June 2009
25 Pages Posted: 12 Aug 2013
Date Written: 2009
Abstract
When a person’s firmly held moral beliefs are prima facie inconsistent with his or her religious beliefs, how should the person address that problem? In this paper we outline several ways of posing such consistency challenges and offer a detailed taxonomy of the various responses available to someone facing a consistency challenge of this sort. Throughout the paper, our concerns are primarily pedagogical — how best to pose consistency challenges in the classroom, how to stimulate discussion of the various responses to them, and how to relate such consistency challenges to larger issues, such as whether scripture is, in general, a reliable guide to truth.
Keywords: consistency, ethics, religious belief
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