Date
7-4-2023
Department
Rawlings School of Divinity
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Theology and Apologetics (PhD)
Chair
Ed Martin
Keywords
metaethics, moral argument, theism, atheism, ethics, morality
Disciplines
Philosophy | Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion
Recommended Citation
Kratt, Dale Eugene, "A Theistic Critique of Secular Moral Nonnaturalism" (2023). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 4607.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/4607
Abstract
This dissertation is an exercise in Theistic moral apologetics. It will be developing both a critique of secular nonnaturalist moral theory (moral Platonism) at the level of metaethics, as well as a positive form of the moral argument for the existence of God that follows from this critique. The critique will focus on the work of five prominent metaethical theorists of secular moral non-naturalism: David Enoch, Eric Wielenberg, Russ Shafer-Landau, Michael Huemer, and Christopher Kulp. Each of these thinkers will be critically examined. Following this critique, the positive moral argument for the existence of God will be developed, combining a cumulative, abductive argument that follows from filling in the content of a succinct apagogic argument. The cumulative abductive argument and the apagogic argument together, with a transcendental and modal component, will be presented to make the case that Theism is the best explanation for the kind of moral, rational beings we are and the kind of universe in which we live, a rational intelligible universe.
