Definition
Biblical morality is the idea that moral guidance is derived from scripture — in the Western context, chiefly the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. For its defenders, scripture supplies a stable and authoritative foundation for ethical life. For its critics, including Dawkins, scripture is an inconsistent and historically bound moral guide.
The term itself is neutral: it names the project of grounding morality in sacred text, whether one regards that project as sound or flawed.
Why it matters
How it works
In practice, almost no one treats every scriptural instruction as binding. Readers distinguish timeless principles from culturally specific commands, and interpret difficult passages through tradition, reason, and conscience. Religious communities have long-developed methods for doing exactly this.
Dawkins presses a pointed version of the question: if readers must already decide which passages to keep, then an independent moral judgment is doing the deciding. Defenders reply that scripture, read within a living interpretive tradition, still shapes and disciplines that judgment rather than merely rubber-stamping it.