6264 Religion Solves Morality?

Freedomain with Stefan Molyneux

Stefan Molyneux

Atheism, Democrat, Pacifism, Freedomainradio, Objectivism, Liberal, Conservative, Objectivist, Politics, Joe-rogan, Libertarian, Atheist, Republican, News & Politics, Philosophy, Anarchy, Freedom

4.7 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 15 January 2026

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Stefan Molyneux takes on the notion that true ethics must come straight from God's orders, pointing out how morals drawn from holy books end up being pretty subjective, with people interpreting them in all sorts of ways. He responds to someone's worry about what happens without divine rules by noting that, unlike hard science, religious morals don't hold up the same across the board. Drawing from Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, he shows how followers disagree on basics like forgiveness or following divine laws. Molyneux digs into the past tensions between these religions and the mixed messages in their ethical advice, which makes him doubt whether divine say-so really settles right and wrong. He pushes people to think about their own biases in judging morals and cautions against leaning on religious teachings to back up decisions, suggesting instead a closer look at one's own sense of ethics.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	All right, two thoughts. Maybe we'll get to two. I'll certainly get to one.
0:03.8	So there's somebody who emails me at least once a week making the case
0:07.5	that UPB does not prove ethics, ethics can only be grounded in God's commandments.
0:15.1	That only God can remove subjectivity and relativism from ethics.
0:22.1	Well, that is a very interesting observation,
0:26.5	and one which I've touched on here and there,
0:28.8	but I want to take the brain canon directly at the broadsides of this idea
0:34.2	that with God, with God, with God, you get objective ethics.
0:41.1	I strenuously disagree.
0:44.4	Now, with science and with physics, you get objective answers if they're validated.
0:49.8	They're true all over the world.
0:51.6	Indian mathematicians and Sri Lankan mathematicians and Chinese mathematicians,
0:57.2	and European and American, all say two and two make four. Scientists all over the world say that
1:03.3	gravity is a property of mass, gases expand when he did and things fall to the earth at 9.8 meters per
1:08.4	second per second. All over.
1:12.4	That's objective.
1:18.9	There are 10,000 gods, at least in the minds of man. And I would argue there are as many gods as there are people, because everybody has
1:25.8	their relatively subjective interpretation of what is meant by God's commandments.
1:32.6	So when you say God brings objectivity to morals, you have a problem in that God, God mostly, does not bring objectivity to morality, even within
1:49.7	the same religion, even within the same denominations, even within the same church,
1:56.3	there are wild disagreements about the meaning of religious texts.
2:02.2	People in Islam, disagree with people in Judaism, disagree with people in Christianity,
	...

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