“[T]he word ‘good’ is meaningless because it has no content, and will remain empty until agreement can be reached on the nature of the qualities to be exhibited by the object or person under discussion” (Ray Billington, Religion Without God: 110)
In Religion Without God, Ray Billington launches a polemical attack against Christianity and the statement ‘God is good’. Yet, he espouses the views that (1) religion is “real and a force for enrichment in, potentially, everybody’s life”; and (2) Christianity’s main role “may well be as a catalyst in the discovery of a world ethic”
This talk draws on the work of Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Iris Murdoch, the psychotherapist Carl Rogers, and recent findings from neurochemistry, in an attempt to show that ‘good’ is not meaningless; and, in doing so, to develop Ray’s ideas and formulate a world-ethic which takes us beyond ‘Good’ and ‘Evil’.