The Death of God

The death of God' by Simon Blackburn is a short essay that face the role of religion in the ethical choices that we face. Throughout the essay the idea that religion has involvement with ethics is never unclear, but the essay does question this involvement by asking to what degree and why this is the case. Blackburn demonstrates his place by demonstrating the ridiculousness of some religious viewpoints.

To show how certain religious messages cannot be taken literally in today's culture, Blackburn uses some vital examples from The Old and New Testaments. For example; "justice can be fulfilled by the sacrifice of an innocent for the sins of the guilty' and 'God having no problem with a slave-owning culture'. Here he displays how well that God's word isn't "eternal and unchanging" as the bible says; but instead as we change, so does our environment and moral state. Blackburn implies that it would be not right for people to base their ethics solely upon what is read aloud to them through Christianity.

Blackburn searched the reasons behind this dependence upon the "handbook" of religion from which people form their ethical beliefs, and features an assault on Christianity by ‘Friedrich Nietzsche' to support his dispute. Nietzsche says that "it is only those who are at the bottom who search for their salvation in it', that "the highest good is regarded as unachievable, as a gift, as "grace." Blackburn introduces the concept that the fear of punishment after death is enough in itself for people to follow religious messages, just as it is for the rewards for example, heaven. This is a main idea, and is supported by Blackburn's use of an exerpt by Kant: "It supports us to act in harmony with a rule, but only because of fear of punishment". This offers us a clear description for the link between ethical choices and religious. While I agree with Blackburn's