Deck 14: Ethics and Religion

Question 1

Euthyphro's view that the gods approve something because it is good reflects the _______ thesis.

A) dependency
B) autonomy
C) divine command
D) Biblical

Answer 1

B

Question 2

The autonomy thesis

A) is not consistent with God being the greatest being possible.
B) appears to allow anything to be considered morally right.
C) allows for God to command some horrendous evil.
D) seems to make moral right and wrong trivial.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Which of the following concerns is not raised by the acceptance of divine command theory?

A) It does not seem consistent with God being the greatest being possible.
B) It appears to allow anything to count as morally right.
C) It allows for God to command some horrendous evil.
D) It seems to make moral right and wrong trivial.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Aquinas's natural law theory maintains that

A) the autonomy thesis is correct.
B) morality depends directly on God.
C) morality depends indirectly on God.
D) morality does not depend on God at all.

Question 5

Suppose that whatever God commands is morally right because God is the one who commands it. This _______ yield a good moral standard because _______.

A) will; God is good
B) will; God cannot command anything that is not good
C) may not; potentially, God could command anything
D) will not; we cannot derive a moral standard from divine command.

Question 6

Which of the following does the alternate account claim about moral wrongs?

A) They do not conform to God's nature.
B) They conflict with God's nature.
C) God has commanded us not to do such things.
D) God has not said whether we should or should not do such things.

Question 7

According to the alternate dependency account, morally right acts are defined as acts that

A) match with God's nature.
B) are neutral with respect to God's nature.
C) are independent of God's nature.
D) are those that most human beings agree are morally wrong.

Question 8

The alternate account does not include the claim that

A) God's essential nature cannot change.
B) God's nature and how God acts will never conflict.
C) The greatest being possible cannot will, desire, or do something in conflict with its nature.
D) God can never deal with different people in different ways.

Question 9

If many people don't believe in God's existence, then the alternate dependency account

A) cannot be correct.
B) could still be correct.
C) must still be correct.
D) is irrelevant.

Question 10

Conceiving of God as the greatest being possible

A) is compatible with several religions.
B) is evidence for God's existence.
C) applies a concept entirely unique to Christianity.
D) implies nothing about God's nature.

Question 11

The alternate dependency account is

A) complete as it stands.
B) complete, but religion can add moral claims to it.
C) incomplete as an ethical theory in itself.
D) incomplete, unlike other secular moral theories.

Question 12

A religious believer could hold to the dependency thesis and also say that

A) they first learned about the moral importance of consequences from act utilitarianism.
B) the Ten Commandments provide us with moral knowledge.
C) their conscience sometimes helps them determine what is right or wrong.
D) All of the above

Question 13

Euthyphro tells Socrates that pious acts are acts that the gods love. This can mean

A) that the gods make pious acts pious by loving those acts.
B) that there are pious acts that exist purely on their own and the gods love these.
C) Either a and b, but not both at the same time
D) Both a and b at the same time

Question 14

It is consistent with the autonomy thesis to maintain that

A) God is under the same moral standard as humans.
B) God sets the moral standard for all humans.
C) without God, there can be no moral standard.
D) the moral right is based indirectly upon God as natural law theory claims.

Question 15

Classic divine command theory claims that morally wrong acts are acts that

A) God has commanded against.
B) conflict with God's nature.
C) do not conform to God's nature.
D) are not mentioned in the Bible.

Question 16

The autonomy thesis

A) completely rules out God's existence.
B) suggests that there can be a moral standard without God's existing.
C) entails that there cannot be a moral standard, regardless of whether God exists.
D) holds that any autonomous person can set their own moral standard.

Question 17

According to the alternate dependency account, morally right acts are defined

A) as whatever God wills or commands.
B) as acts that fit with God's essential nature.
C) in terms completely independent of God
D) as those which are confirmed for us through prayer.

Question 18

Act and rule utilitarianism, as well as Kant's ethics, agree with

A) the dependency thesis.
B) the autonomy thesis.
C) divine command theory.
D) the alternate dependency account.

Question 19

Plato provided an argument for which of the following claims?

A) God's essential nature cannot change.
B) God never wills or acts in ways that conflict with his essential nature.
C) The moral standard consists of all that fully conforms to God's essential nature or character.
D) The means by which we initially gain knowledge of the moral standard need not appeal directly to either God or religion.

Question 20

Because humans can act according to or against their own characters, they must not be

A) good.
B) moral.
C) diving command theorists.
D) the greatest beings possible.

Question 21

Traditional divine command theory takes whatever God wills or commands to be good by definition.

Question 22

Divine command theory and Aquinas's natural law theory both rely on morality existing independently of God.

Question 23

The alternate dependency account states that the good conforms with God's essential nature, while everything that conflicts with or is neutral to God's essential nature is evil.

Question 24

The alternate dependency account is not a complete ethical theory, as it must appeal to religion to be applicable.

Question 25

Divine command theory entails that there are still some things that must be morally right, no matter what God might command.

Question 26

The autonomy thesis entails that some things could be morally right, no matter what God might think.

Question 27

Given traditional divine command theory, if God were to tell parents that they should always kill their first child, then killing one's first child would be the morally right thing to do.

Question 28

If God's essential nature determines what is morally good and right, then we cannot learn anything about morality from sources independent of God or religion.

Question 29

Whether God exists is one of the central questions of ethics.

Question 30

Determining how to properly assess a religion's moral teachings is especially important because so many things-both terrible and good-are done by people based on their religious beliefs.