Peter Boghossian on Morality without God
Boghossian argues that morality not only functions without God but is improved by removing faith from ethical reasoning.
Boghossian treats the question of morality without God as essentially resolved. Secular societies consistently outperform religious ones on measures of human well-being — crime rates, educational attainment, gender equality, health outcomes. The empirical evidence does not support the claim that God is necessary for moral behaviour. If anything, it suggests the opposite.
His more interesting contribution is the argument that faith-based morality is epistemically inferior to evidence-based morality. When moral decisions are grounded in faith — in the commands of an unverifiable authority — they cannot be revised in light of new evidence. Secular moral reasoning, by contrast, is self-correcting. When we discover that a moral practice causes harm, we can change it. Religious morality resists such revision because it claims divine authority.
Boghossian frequently notes that the moral progress of civilization has consistently involved moving away from religious authority and toward evidence-based reasoning. The abolition of slavery, the extension of rights to women, and the recognition of LGBTQ equality all required overcoming religious objections. Morality without God is not only possible — it is what moral progress looks like.
“Faith is pretending to know things you don't know. When you pretend to know things about morality that you don't know, real people get hurt.”