Objective Moral Facts Exist in All Possible Universes
The question of whether a God is needed to justify or ground moral facts is mooted by the fact that true moral facts exist in all possible universes that contain rational agents. This can be demonstrated in three stages. First, it is necessarily the case that true moral facts can only be described as the imperatives that supersede all other imperatives. Second, it is necessarily the case that for any rational agent there will always be true hypothetical imperatives that supersede all other imperatives. And third, if there are true hypothetical imperatives that supersede all other imperatives, they are then, necessarily, the only true moral facts. As this follows for any rational agent in any possible universe, the presence of God is irrelevant to the existence of moral facts. God could be more capable of identifying those true moral facts, but he cannot author or ground them. And though a God could casuistically alter moral imperatives by altering the corresponding physics, he is constrained in what he can make true this way by moral fundamentals that are always necessarily true. God is therefore not necessary for there to be moral facts.
Authors
- Richard Carrier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0134-5070)
Institutions
- Instituto de Montañas (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Religions
- Published
- 2025-08-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16081061
- Primary Topic
- Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00