Does morality need God?

Does morality need God? A fine and accessible book on the subject is Why Bother Being Good? The Place of God in the Moral Life, by John Hare, professor of philosophy at Calvin College. He is one of the most important Christian moral philosophers writing today (see The Moral Gap and God's Call). He argues powerfully that morality does need God. His point is not that a person who doesn't believe in God can't be …

…the mantle of critics who complain about the state of the "world" and, less often, the mantle of reformers who offer ways to improve it. If Hare is right, they should not neglect their primary task of witnessing to the God of Jesus Christ. We appeal to God to answer two central questions that lie at the heart of any moral crisis: "Why should we be morally good?" and "How can we be morally good?"