Most people believe in moral facts.

That is, there's something about torturing and murdering innocent people that makes it wrong,

which goes beyond just a feeling.

Yet it's hard to locate morality anywhere in the natural world.

For this reason, many have understood God to be the source and arbiter of moral truth.

But can morality depend on divine decree, or would that make goodness a matter of celestial whim?

In this episode, we'll be discussing the nature of moral obligation with Paul Taylor,

doctoral candidate in philosophy at the University of Liverpool. There, as a university teacher, he specialises in ethics, political philosophy, and our topic for today,

philosophy of religion. As the recipient of the Robins-Roblatz scholarship, Paul's research

examines one of the oldest and most perplexing

questions in moral philosophy. First posed by Plato over 2,000 years ago, it asks,

Does God decide what is moral, or merely report moral facts? In search of the best answer,

we've been diving to Paul's unpublished work, pieces that ask not just the big metorethical

questions, but the practical ones.

What are we obliged to do and why are we obliged to do it?

As we'll discover, Taylor's work and contemporary discussion on the Euthra Frodelemy

pushes us to think again about where morality comes from and whether we and even God must answer it.

Hello and welcome to episode 148 of the panpsychast.

Pious because I say so, I'm Jack Symes, and I'm delighted to be joined once again by the man with no obligations.

It's Jonathan Hawkins.

Hello.

And the supremely sovereign, Paul Taylor.

...