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This paper examines the inadequacy of non-theistic approaches to moral realism and argues for theism’s essential role in grounding ethics.

May 7, 2026Open Access

The Oddness of Ethics Without God: Why Morality Is Not “At Home” in a Non-Theistic World

Key Points

This paper examines the inadequacy of non-theistic approaches to moral realism and argues for theism’s essential role in grounding ethics.
Literature review of non-theistic moral frameworks such as naturalistic and non-naturalistic moral realism and their implications for ethics.
Analysis of theistic moral frameworks to showcase their integration with objective moral facts.
Theism provides a more stable and unifying context for understanding moral facts compared to non-theistic models.
Non-theistic moral frameworks lack the comprehensive explanatory power found in theistic ethics.

Abstract

Despite non-theistic proposals on offer to ground moral realism, theism still offers a far more stable, robust, and well-integrated metaphysical context for objective moral facts and moral values. Moral realism is not truly “at home” within such non-theistic frameworks, which include Cornell school-type naturalistic moral realism or non-naturalistic, non-theistic Platonist moral realism. Theism’s deep connection to moral facts and moral values is more natural, unifying, and basic than these alternatives. Furthermore, theism offers a more comprehensive explanatory account for other central features of our human experience, as well as key features of the universe in which we find ourselves.

The Oddness of Ethics Without God: Why Morality Is Not “At Home” in a Non-Theistic World

Key Points

Abstract

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