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A Moral Defense of Recreational Drug UseReligious Arguments

A Moral Defense of Recreational Drug Use: Religious Arguments [Thus far, I have evaluated nonreligious harm-based and non-harm-based arguments against recreational drug use. In this chapter, I evaluate religious harm-based and non-harm-based arguments against recreational drug use. The importance of doing so is grounded in the powerful role that religion seems to play in the moral condemnation of recreational drug use, particularly of illegal drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, and heroin. Husak provides three reasons for thinking religion does in fact play such a role: “First, the paucity of respectable secular arguments against the morality of illicit drug use suggests that other kinds of considerations are at work. Second, the relative lack of moral fervor about drug use in much of Europe is most easily explained by the fact that religious faith tends to be less pervasive and politically influential than in most of the United States. Third and most importantly, no demographic variable— age, race, geographical location, income, political affiliation, or gender— correlates nearly as strongly with attitudes about illicit drugs as religion.”1 Given this, an evaluation of religious arguments against recreational drug use is an important aspect of the debate on recreational drug use’s moral status.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

A Moral Defense of Recreational Drug UseReligious Arguments

Lovering, Rob
Springer Journals — Nov 30, 2015
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Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan US
Copyright
© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Nature America Inc. 2015
ISBN
978-1-349-55249-8
Pages
149 –162
DOI
10.1057/9781137528681_6
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[Thus far, I have evaluated nonreligious harm-based and non-harm-based arguments against recreational drug use. In this chapter, I evaluate religious harm-based and non-harm-based arguments against recreational drug use. The importance of doing so is grounded in the powerful role that religion seems to play in the moral condemnation of recreational drug use, particularly of illegal drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, and heroin. Husak provides three reasons for thinking religion does in fact play such a role: “First, the paucity of respectable secular arguments against the morality of illicit drug use suggests that other kinds of considerations are at work. Second, the relative lack of moral fervor about drug use in much of Europe is most easily explained by the fact that religious faith tends to be less pervasive and politically influential than in most of the United States. Third and most importantly, no demographic variable— age, race, geographical location, income, political affiliation, or gender— correlates nearly as strongly with attitudes about illicit drugs as religion.”1 Given this, an evaluation of religious arguments against recreational drug use is an important aspect of the debate on recreational drug use’s moral status.]

Published: Nov 30, 2015

Keywords: Recreational Drug; Divine Command; Unnaturalness Argument; Divine Command Theory; Implicit Premise

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