ABSTRACT
Let’s now turn to a different attack on Liberal moral and religious education.
This book argues that, when it comes to judgements about right and wrong, it’s a mistake to encourage children and young adults to accept uncritically the pronouncements of some external authority. They should be encouraged and trained to think for themselves. But isn’t this vastly to overestimate what an individual, armed only with their power of reason, can do? Is it possible for an individual, just by applying their own rationality, to figure out what’s right and wrong? The answer to that, many would say, is ‘no’. An individual, left with nothing but the power of their own intellect, is left stranded, like a frog at the bottom of a well, unable to attain any moral bearings at all. Reason alone is morally blind. Someone who thinks that stealing is morally acceptable need not be any less rational than someone selflessly devoted to helping others.Their mistake is not one of logic. But if morality is not ultimately a matter of reason, isn’t it a mistake to place so much emphasis on it? If my power of reason is ultimately incapable of distinguishing right from wrong, surely I have no choice but to place my faith in some external Authority that can supply that moral knowledge for me?
