Bishop Robert Barron on God and Morality

[TheAnniet]

Thank you, Fr. Barron, for this thoughtful reflection.  I just want to add something that is implicit in what you said about drinking water=hydration of body=support of life, etc.: we do this because our bodies do not belong to us.  They belong to God.

[daidnz]

"Running on the fumes", reminds me of a quote by Swiss theologian, Emil Brunner, "The feeling for the personal and the human which is the fruit of faith may outlive for a time the death of the roots from which it has grown. But this cannot last very long. As a rule the decay of religion works out in the second generation as moral rigidity and in the third generation as the breakdown of all morality. Humanity without religion has never been a historical force capable of resistance. "

[farocatolico]

Go father Barron, you rock !! Keep up the good work !!

[chrismelvin]

Right on - Fr. Barron - Right on. What some people are forgetting is that Faith is a form; that if missing from a person changes their perception on morality. And I am not saying the faithless can not have morality; it is just sharpened and more precise with the faithful. Thus, making the faithful more accountable in the end for their actions.

[elcanaldeshackra]

Awesome comentary, Father!
It was the one that I was waiting for!!

[mzdiablita]

Keep up your videos father. :) love them all

[jeffersonianideal]

The Bishop's assertions amount to a logical fallacy and conjecture. Additionally, there are many examples within biblical scripture that call into question whether the God figure in the biblical narrative is actually behaving in a moral manner.

[triciamonica]

I love this .... My spirit continues to expand.... Please continue making videos!

[daidnz]

Also, Stephen Keillor, in Prisoners of Hope, says:

The initial act of eliminating our Creator God from our thinking is so immoral and unethical in itself as to render the following concern with ethical fine points quite absurd. It's as if students were to murder the teacher and then sit down to have serious discussions about proper manners in the classroom.

[charlesstiebing]

God and God alone determines whether acts are right or wrong good or bad.  Why?  because the Creator is the "umpire" and the creatures are the "players".  We didn't create the "game" of life; we just "play" it.  Great video Fr. Barron!

[allenmaurer]

A to Catholic Moral Theology, Fr. Barron. I'd like very much to see you build upon this video with another one exploring the more concrete, practical side of things. And by that, I mean not only the corporal, but also the spiritual works of mercy. In fact, the 14 works of mercy would be a great subject for a whole series. (Hint, hint...)

[CoryTheRaven]

Excellent video. If I'm understanding you correctly, it echoed some of my own understanding of how moral systems develop. Basically, morality is a function of what a person ultimately believes to be true. In a sense, it is truth put in verb form. 

John, I think, articulates this quite nicely in 1 John 4, in which he draws the connection between the truth of Christ which is the love of God, and actualizing that truth in one's own behaviour (i.e.: v.7-8: "Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love."). But it also holds for every other philosophical and religious view. Buddha saw that our illusory expectations kept us from Enlightenment and mired in suffering, so he proposed an Eightfold Path to draw us out of our illusions. Ayn Rand proposed that the individual is the highest order of being and therefore selfishness is the highest virtue. Communism adheres to Marx's historical dialectic and so sees the global revolution as the highest good. And so on.

I mentioned a couple atheist philosophies in there (actually all three are atheist philosophies), but general pop-atheism in our culture is sort of interesting in this respect. Most atheists are, I think, the banal kind. By that I mean to reference Hannah Arendt's "The Banality of Evil" in which she deconstructed the trial of Adolf Eichmann and came to the conclusion that what allows evil to happen is not that "good men do nothing" but rather that people just act normally when acting normally means shuffling millions of people into death camps. The banality of atheism is to just go with the cultural flow without any serious moral compass. In a society living off the fumes of Christianity that works out okay, but it could be disastrous when some more vile philosophy takes over, as we are seeing with emergence of Capitalism as our dominant religion. That would seem to be in keeping with the concept of a gradual moral degradation.

New Atheism is put in a fun place of having moral precepts that are totally at odds with its fundamental worldview. Do New Atheists believe in morality? OH BOY DO THEY. They never f**king shut up about it... You can always rely on a New Atheist to have a ready condemnation of anyone who thinks or acts differently from themselves. The whole raison d'etre of their existence to is to complain about other people not reaching their own moral standards. Dawkins, Harris and Hitchens made a living doing that. And in New Atheism, the highest virtue is The Truth, at least as they perceive it to be. Thus the greatest moral offense is to be religious, since religion is The Lie. Dawkins even stated that raising a child religious (Catholic specifically) is a worse form of abuse than sexually molesting them, and that insanity only makes sense if you realize that to Dawkins, lying to a child is the worst possible thing you could do to them.   

However, an atheist worldview is ultimately nihilistic, which means that The Truth has no moral value at all. NOTHING has moral value. There is no ultimate stopping point of things that are intrinsically good unto themselves. The universe doesn't care if you believe The Truth or not. Nature doesn't care whether or not you're religious, or whether a child was raised religiously. Evolution only weighs in on the reproductive success of belief or unbelief in God, with no respect to its truth value. Existence is the highest order of banality. New Atheism is inherently self-contradictory every time one of them opens their mouth to vomit up more tedious accusations about what bad, stupid people we are. A cold, empty, mechanical, naturalistic cosmos doesn't give a damn about how bad and stupid we are. The only coherent atheist moral philosophy is nihilism, because it is the only one that respects the ultimate truth of the atheist claim. 

Whew, got off on a rant there. Thus, I would argue that belief in any kind of morality at all NECESSITATES belief in a Divinity as you describe, who is unconditioned Truth, unconditioned Goodness, unconditioned Beauty and unconditioned Love. I'm glad for banal atheists and as entertained by New Atheists as I am frustrated by them, but any serious concept of morality has to end up at a genuine Beginning. 

[Sinisteredgirl]

I like it that the notion of God here is very much like the philosopher's notion of God as that of the infinite or the unconditional or that which nothing greater can be thought of (the Anselmian name). A very beautiful and informative video, Father :)

[thpalomarc]

Hana Hou and Mahalo Nui Father Barron! Bravo on sharing the Light of Christ.

[skjelver]

In The Brothers Karamazov, The Devil appears to Ivan Fyodorovich in a nightmare, and describes what life will be like once God's existence has been completely denied.  I just read part of the chapter again, thanks to Fr. Barron's quote, and what strikes me is how the Devil's description fits our modern times almost exactly.

[freescheme]

Father Barron, I've watched most of your videos and as a practicing, but somewhat (let's say) hesitant Catholic, I've mostly agreed. However, one thing that gnaws at me in these sort of morality videos is the following:

Both a religious person and an atheist (or non-religious) can agree on moral truths that are good in themselves, e.g. we all have the right to live as free people (not slaves). As you would likely say, we agree because this society has been built around Christian values, and even those who do not believe are still "running on the fumes" of Christianity.

But if some of us are practicing Christians and some of us are just "running on the fumes" wouldn't it be the case that we would see a more rapid devolution of civilization in those areas and among those people not running on "high test" Christianity (extending your metaphor a bit)? Yet, in places like northern New England, which you pointed out previously to be the most un-churched part of the country, society is not crumbling. It seems to me that they are doing relatively well. In countries like Finland, where people are largely non-religious, a culture of care and support seems to have emerged. Within academia (my field) people who are largely non-religious are very concerned with social justice and reaching out to the underprivileged. At a personal level some of my friends who are the most adamantly non-religious also have chosen social justice-aligned careers, like a friend of mine who is a public defender.but could be making five times her salary as a corporate lawyer.

Now, I have some thoughts about this, but I wanted to get your perspective. It's very hard to make the case that we need God to support our moral beliefs to people who are, in fact, deeply moral.

Thank you in advance.

Jon

[judym.]

I would ask you all to pray for God’s help to lead His Church to end the Homelessness/Drug Addiction Crisis. This could be a public repentance for the priest sexual abuse scandal. People might give God a second chance if His faithful did good and publicly repented.

[jeffsarah]

Father, how would you respond to Euthyphro's dilemma?

[MLA]

I love how Father tries to simplify a difficult topic. The way I see it. If anyone is a history buff, it's easy to see how humans have been very destructive towards each other when they are allowed to determine what they deem "right" in their own views; which is now described as Moral relativism. And that's because of Man's tendency to be self serving. Look at all the different examples of genocide. Those committing genocide have determined that what they did was deemed "right". Man does not have a good track record for living harmoniously with each other which is exemplified by the first murder of Able by his brother Cain. From then till now, man has failed in creating a civilization free of actions that degrade, and destroy the value of their fellow neighbor. It's so clear to me that we need God...

[Augmar]

Thank you, fr Barron for your great service! I want you to know that your videos have been used in classes at my school, st Paul's school, one of the very few catholic schools in Norway. I have learned a lot from them, and so I can forward the Truth wherever I can. Being a teacher for those who are to receive their first communion, I can for a fact say that your videos have done something for the little catholic part of Norway. Your videos explain matters very well, and they are reaching out to both believers and doubters, keeping catholic foothold in Norway for years to come.
Thank you, father. Make a trip to Norway soon. To Selja, the birthplace of the catholic church in Norway, where we are trying to rebuild a benedictian monastery. To Trondheim, where holy Olav rested until the reformation - one of the five great pilgrim-trips from old - to the church Nidarosdomen, and to Stiklestad, where he died in battle 1033. He was baptized in 1014, 1000 years ago.
The Church in Norway is doing a lot to grow. We have come far, but there is still a long way to go. Your lectures would give us a boost for sure.
Thank you father. Bless you, your film crew and your work.