John Stuart Mill Utilitarianism

In “Utilitarianism,” John Stuart Mill attempts to reconcile the principles of

Utilitarianism with those of religion - specifically Christianity, the dominant religion in the West at that time. Though Mill himself was a religious skeptic, he tried to make Utilitarianism more palatable to the general public that held strong religious conviction. He argues that religious moral thought, even a belief in innate morality, can coexist with this theory. While I do recognize that religious individuals can use utilitarian ethics to make decisions, I do not believe that

Utilitarianism and most religions can comfortably coexist as elements of a society’s moral framework. As someone who grew up in the American South, the expression of religion with which I am most familiar is

Others are performed in hope of approval or reward from Him. Mill argues that if one believes that God is truly good, then God’s main criterion for morality must also be the general good. However, this is problematic in that religious interpretation of the general good can differ greatly from the idea of happiness and unity that Mill presents. For religions like Christianity that hold a belief in an eternal afterlife, temporary “earthly” pleasures have a much lower value in a utilitarian calculus than the hope of an unending period of joy. For example, the

Spanish Inquisition tortured and killed many accused heretics to suppress ideas counter to the tenets of the church. The actions of the Inquisition provoked a general uneasiness in the public and led to many painful disfigurements and deaths.

To a religious utilitarianist, this may have ultimately promoted the general good in that “false teachers” were killed or intimidated before they could trick more people out of their eternal reward. The suffering of these heretics on earth would pale in comparison to the suffering of their potential followers in the afterlife. To a utilitarianist who does not believe in the afterlife, this event is horrific