Q&A: Morality and God
Morality and God
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I recently listened to the Rabbi’s series on faith / belief, and also to the Rabbi’s conversation with the professor (I forgot his name) about the connection between God and morality.
The Rabbi argued several times, on the one hand, that if there is no God then there is no morality, but on the other hand he also said, both about God and about morality itself, that one does not need an external reason that obligates a person to morality or to commandments, because the very definition of an act as moral is itself obligating, and a person who does not understand this is blind—just like a person who does not understand why one should keep the commandments is blind. If so, why do you need God in order to obligate morality? So according to this, morality is binding because it is moral and does not need any additional reason, just like God..
Answer
In short, a person who does not see the obligation to morality is blind. But that obligation is grounded in God. Therefore, a person who does not see God (through morality) is blind. I did not say that no external reason is needed to obligate; I said that the existence of an ethical fact is not neutral, but rather obligating. But ethical facts are grounded in God. It is also worth looking at column 457.