A student organization welcomed a philosopher of religion to campus who applied ethics and politics to address the question: “Can you be moral without religion”?

Baylor University professor of philosophy and church-state studies Francis Beckwith spoke to Badger Catholic Thursday night on his view of morality and said it is founded upon a “divine source, which is God.”
Beckwith described the Natural Moral Law with five key attributes of what morality seems to be.

He said these are defined by becoming non-physical through non-inferential acts of understanding, forms of communications and forces people can feel prior to any behavior or compulsion. He added that violating moral rules makes people feel guilty, and morals are unable to be explained by something else.
Beckwith also said there are three main options of where morality is founded.

The first, he said, includes the idea that some view morality as “an illusion.” He said morals may not be obeyed if there is no jurisdiction provided.

He said the second option includes how morality is founded by possibly the naturalist evolution. He said in this view, moral meaning comes from “past traits of our ancestors.”

The third option, which he said includes his own view, is that morality is created by God or divine inspiration.
From a meta-ethical standpoint, Beckwith also said morality makes most sense when viewed through a religious perspective.

“Without religion or a divine source, there is no meaning,” he said.

Michael Hess, a University of Wisconsin freshman and member of Badger Catholic, said he found the talk interesting. He said he liked listening to philosophical viewpoints on the subject.

Lucas Swank, a UW freshman and member of Badger Catholic, also said he found the talk engaging. 

“It is something interesting to talk about; philosophy isn’t something to be proving, but rather something to think about to better understand the universe,” Swank said. “I like the argument [Beckwith] presented even though I am not religious myself.”

Following his talk on his own beliefs and ideas of morality, Beckwith answered questions from the audience about his speech.

During this time, several students brought up scientific standpoints on the foundation of morality.
Beckwith defended himself by explaining his view that God is not a scientific hypothesis and that God was never thought of as “one being of all beings” but as the “ground of beings.”

“God is good and good can be defined as God,” he said.

As the event concluded, Beckwith said his main point was that looking through a meta-ethical standpoint, morality makes the most sense when viewed through religious perspectives.