Religion, Ethics and the Implications for Moral Education: A critique of Nucci's Morality and Religious Rules

Abstract

Through a critique of a recent argument by Larry Nucci, this article claims that for many religious believers, religion and morality cannot be wholly separated. Accordingly, efforts at moral education that seek to ignore the role of religion in moral judgement will fail to engage with the realities of many students' moral frameworks. In contrast to Nucci's claim that religion is irrelevant to moral judgement, this essay argues that morality is only weakly independent from religion. Moral knowledge does not derive exclusively from religious sources, but none the less involves relevant (and sometimes critical) religious considerations. Accordingly, moral education in American public schools needs curricula that help students explore and understand various moral rationales and motivations from a variety of cultural sources, religious and otherwise, providing opportunities for students to engage with difference and develop the capacity for mutual respect and (when necessary) reasonable disagreement.