Q&A: Is Morality from God? Or Is Obedience to God Derived from Morality?
Is Morality from God? Or Is Obedience to God Derived from Morality?
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Someone raised the following argument to me:
Usually people claim that the validity of moral intuition comes from an objective God who implanted it in human beings, and therefore we are not dealing here with just some non-binding feeling, but with good and evil.
But then what? Our obligation to obey God as the source of the good—where does that come from, if not from our moral intuition? If so, to project the validity of morality onto something whose own validity holds only because of morality itself is a fallacy.
What does the Rabbi think about this argument? Is he right or wrong, and why?
Thank you very much.
Answer
First, by the same token you could ask where the validity of logic comes from: from logic? There are always first principles that cannot be grounded in other principles. The obligation to obey the Holy One, blessed be He, is a primary obligation, and the other moral obligations are derived from it.
But in my opinion this is not a moral obligation. See my article here on the site about philosophical gratitude.
A person has to overcome his moral intuition, otherwise he violates "and you shall not follow after your heart and after your eyes."