Christina Beyer - Morality and the Construction of Religion in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles

“Divine prohibitions do not make such things as murder, torture or rape wrong; they serve instead to reinforce an independent morality. Murder is, so to speak, doubly wrong in virtue of being forbidden by God; it is both a wrong against the victim and a wrong against God. But murder would still be morally wrong even if it were not sinful because God did not exist. For actions of this type, moral wrongness is independent of sinfullness.“ (Quinn 542)

Moreover, logically speaking, murder is wrong independent of the existence of God. But Louis is not only concerned with moral questions; his thoughts are occupied with the question if heaven or hell exist. With a proof of God’s existence, the question of damnation, which in this case is equivalent with the definition of sin, could be answered. Unfortunately, metaphysical questions like that are hardly solvable. Moreover, taking into consideration the numerous murder of a vampire in general, Louis could only wish for the nonexistence of God, in which case the chance of a proof is even less likely. Still, there is an argument which suggests that hell does not exist. In his article, Jonathan L. Kvanvig suggests that God is depicted in the Bible as morally good. Given this assumption, the perfectly goodness is inconsistent with the willingness to perform evil.

“If God is incapable of evil and sending a person to hell is always unjust, then there simply cannot be any metaphysically possible world in which anyone goes to hell. That is, it cannot be a merely contingent truth that all are saved: it must instead be a necessary truth.“ (Kvanvig 564)

The argument that Kvanvig mentions seems very logical. It might even count as a proof that hell does not exist for those who do not have such a strong religious background. Still, religious people could argue that God moves in mysterious ways and that there might be a reason to punish the evildoer for his sins. However, as was already said, metaphysical questions like that are hard to be answer.

Instead, Cunningham asks if there is any substitute for God in our age. Since people do not believe in the Christian church as much as they used to centuries ago, there has to be something else that has equal value to them. He is convinced that people have the desire to belong to something (Cunningham 106). Cunningham argues that these believes “shape our character, our habits, our judgments, and our actions.“ Therefore, God (or an equivalent to Him) is needed for ethics. Furthermore, he asks if it is possible to be “good without God“ (Cunningham 107). What is important for him is to be part of a community and being involved in some kind of worshipping something or someone. The following example is very telling: “When attending a rock concert, one can enjoy the music and the spectacle; but one can also devote oneself to the superstars on the stage in ways that are not obviously different from worship.“ (Cunningham 109)

From this point of view, worshipping Lestat and his band and being a strong believer in the Christian religion is very comparable for Cunningham. In both cases, the act of worshipping is apparent. The only difference is that whereas Louis seeks to find some evidence of God, Lestat takes on the role of being worshipped and therefore become something like a God himself. Worshipping something other than God also clarifies the question of proving that something metaphysical.

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