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Honest Doubt: The History of an Epic Struggle

Honest Doubt: The History of an Epic Struggle: Episode 15: Godless Morality

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Episode 15

Episode 15: Godless Morality

Godless Morality

BBC Radio 4 - Honest Doubt: The History of an Epic Struggle, Godless Morality

Richard Holloway discusses the possibility of morality in a godless world.

Richard Holloway uses Fyodor Dostoevsky as his starting point to discuss the possibility of morality in a godless world.

In a series of personal essays, Richard Holloway considers the tensions between faith and doubt over the last 3000 years. Author and former Bishop of Edinburgh, Richard Holloway focuses on the Judeo-Christian tradition as he takes the listener from the birth of religious thinking, through the Old and New Testaments, to the developments in subsequent centuries and their influence on thinkers and writers, up to the present day. 

Richard Holloway uses Fyodor Dostoevsky as his starting point to discuss the possibility of morality in a godless world. Do we say yes to life and find our own formula for doing right, as Nietzsche suggested? Are we just intrinsically egoistic in order to survive? Are there things we ought to do, whoever we are and whatever we want, as Kant believed? 

Richard Holloway says that 'the religious dimension in ethical debate sometimes clogs rather than encourages the flow of discussion', but one thing religion can bring to the moral life is the sense of responsibility to a power higher than ourselves. If we lose that sense of responsibility to God, what will now motivate us to help others and restrain our own selfishness? 

He discusses the theme with author AN Wilson, Chris Janaway, Professor of Philosophy at Southampton University, and Nina Power at Roehampton University.


Producer: Olivia Landsberg
A Ladbroke production for BBC Radio 4.

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Richard Holloway presents a series on the relationship between faith and doubt

Richard Holloway, writer and former Bishop of Edinburgh, presents a series of personal essays on the relationship between faith and doubt over the last 3,000 years

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Episode 15: Godless Morality

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