Religious and Non-Religious Premises

Contact: Dr. Jan Garrett

Updated: September 17, 2007

Part of the discipline of crafting moral arguments in a pluralistic context like a public university is abstention from reliance upon strictly religious premises. Try to find appropriate nonreligious moral premises and make them explicit.

Strictly religious premises are of this sort:

God [or a certain holy person in our personal faith tradition] says we should do X or refrain from doing X.

The Koran or Bhagavad Gita or Holy Scripture says we should do X.

Sometimes religious premises are used unconsciously or in a disguised way:

We were not meant to act [in a certain way]. (Who is the "meaner" here?)

Examples of non-religious moral premises

Generally, our actions should promote well-being of our communities, our families, and other persons likely to be affected.

Mutually beneficial social relationships should be nurtured, so long as they do not cause the violation of the rights of third parties.

We should treat others fairly. Those who have similar morally relevant characteristics should be treated equally.

We should respect the basic rights of other individuals-in the areas of liberty, legal procedure before the law, and health and survival needs.

Everyone has a basic human right not to be tortured or to be locked up indefinitely without a trial.

We should show gratitude for those who have done us favors.

We should not misrepresent when entering into a contract.

We should keep our promises, including contractual promises.

When doing an activity that might have harmful consequences to other human beings, we should take special care to do no harm.

When we have caused harm to others, we should try to make it up to them.

We should preserve the diversity of our animal and plant environments and work to keep the planet hospitable to future generations of human beings.