Divine Command Theory

Question 1

Summary

Answer 1

• View God is origin + regulator of morality
• God’s act of commanding something as good or bad is what makes it good or bad
• 10 commandments & Aquinas’ notion of the ‘divine law’ – God’s revelation to humans
• Meta-ethical theory -> attempts to tell nature of morality
• Answers questions like “What is goodness” (simply what God commands)

Question 2

Abraham and Isaac

Answer 2

• God commanded Abraham to kill his son Isaac to prove his faith and loyalty
• Abraham, about to kill his son, God sent an angel to stop him, saying he had proved his faith, they sacrificed a ram instead
• If God commands something, even killing your child – it is good

Question 3

Morality Objective

Answer 3

• God’s command makes something right or wrong in an objective sense -> mind-independent, matter of fact, not opinion, cannot be relativised
• Right/wrong matter of God’s command, becoming good/achieving moral goodness is simply matter of following God’s commands
• Christians believe, God exists -> fundamental nature of reality includes divinity
• Morality = what God commands, morality has meta-physical foundation in reality

Question 4

Requirement of God’s omnipotence

Answer 4

• If there was command superior to God’s command, God would be inferior to that thing
• God is omnipotent, cannot be inferior to or subject to anything else
• If goodness were not matter of God’s command, God would be unable to change or make something good/bad
• Would be something God lacks the power to do – makes him not omnipotent
• Omnipotent power has to include power over morality

Question 5

Dilemma

Answer 5

• When there are two ways something could be, each way leading to a problem
• Two options called horns

Question 6

Euthyphro dilemma

Answer 6

• Is what God commands good because it is good (1st horn)
• Is it good because God commands it? (2nd horn)
• Proposed by Plato (Ancient Greek philosopher)
• Shows that there are two ways we could understand God being perfectly good (omnibenevolent)

Question 7

First Horn

Answer 7

• Is it that what God commands is intrinsically good independently of God
• Suggests God is perfectly good because he perfectly follows intrinsically good moral standard separate from God
• Leads to apparent conflict with omnipotence -> this external moral standard beyond God’s power to control

Question 8

Second Horn

Answer 8

• Is that it is God’s act of commanding something that makes it good
• Suggests that God is perfectly good because perfectly good is whatever God commands it to be
• Leads to the arbitrariness problem - God could change his mind about what is good

Question 9

DCT response to Euthyphro Dilemma

Answer 9

• Attempt to defend the second horn from the arbitrariness problem
• Reject the Euthyphro dilemma as a false dilemma

Question 10

First Horn Problem

Answer 10

• Suppose when God commands something right/wrong, really just informing us about what is intrinsically good
• Seems to require goodness is standard independent of God, has some objective status of its own
• God would be just as judged by that standard as we are, would not have power to change it, otherwise what’s good would ultimately reduce to his command
• Idea God cannot do something/is held to standard higher than himself seems to conflict with his omnipotence

Question 11

Swinburne Defence

Answer 11

• Defends taking second horn
• Some moral truths necessary, must be true -> logically impossible for God to change
• Most theologians -> omnipotence = power to do any logically possible thing, not logically impossible thing
• Intrinsic moral standard external to God which involves necessary moral truths cannot possibly be changed
• Logically impossible to make necessary truths false
• God cannot control/change morality is not undermining of God’s omnipotence

Question 12

Second Horn Problem

Answer 12

• Accept second horn are DCT, face arbitrariness problem
• If what is good is only good because God commanded it to be so, seems God could change his mind, command murder is good -> becomes good on DCT view - God commanding murder wrong must have been random + arbitrary
• DCT = nothing wrong with murder until God commanded it, nothing could have prompted God’s choice as wrong
• If only thing conferring rightness or wrongness = God’s command, seems absent his command, nothing has any rightness or wrongness
• His choice of what to command must therefore be completely random
• Bring God’s reasonableness into question
• If God is acting arbitrarily, cannot be acting based on reasons

Question 13

Euthyphro as a false dilemma

Answer 13

• Medieval theologians (Augustine, Aquinas and Anselm) attempted to solve the Euthyphro dilemma by appealing to third option of God’s nature, making it
  a false dilemma (poses two options when really there are others)
• Arguably third option in Euthyphro dilemma
• Third option = God commands is good as it accords with God’s omnibenevolent nature.
• K. Rogers “God neither conforms to nor invents the moral order. Rather His very nature is the standard for value.”

Question 14

Robert Adams’ Contributions

Answer 14

• Suggests Euthyphro problem can be solved through DCT if modified
• Instead of God’s commands being good because God commands them, God’s commands are good because they are the commands of a loving God

Question 15

Result of RA Contributions (2nd horn)

Answer 15

• Solves arbitrariness problem -> God’s choices of commandments not arbitrary, consequence of his perfect omnibenevolent nature
• God won’t + can’t change his mind tomorrow about what is good, his commands are result of his perfect unchanging omnibenevolent nature

Question 16

Result of RA Contributions (1st horn)

Answer 16

• Solves 1st horn of Euthyphro dilemma; that God commands what is good because it is good
• Adams -> what makes God’s commands good = accordance with God’s omnibenevolent nature
• Avoids threat to omnipotence made by external standard to which God must conform -> standard = God himself

Question 17

Robert Adams Quotes

Answer 17

“an act is wrong if and only if it is contrary to God’s will or commands (assuming God loves us)”
“Any action is ethically wrong if and only if it is contrary to the commands of a loving God”

Question 18

Robert Adams Quotes Explanation

Answer 18

• Arguing e.g. killing is wrong as is contrary to the commands of a loving God
• Goodness of God’s commands does not depend on God’s arbitrary choice/some intrinsic standard of goodness external to God, but on God’s perfectly loving nature which is intrinsic to God
• Claim God is omnibenevolent in that God is the standard and source of moral goodness therefore defended against the Euthyphro dilemma.

Question 19

Challenge - God does change his mind

Answer 19

• Evidence in Bible of God changing mind about moral code we must live by
• Jesus changed some of OT laws – e.g. ‘eye for an eye’ into ‘turn the other cheek’ (Sermon on the Mount)

Question 20

God changes mind response

Answer 20

• Christians claim not God changing mind, simply God changing covenant he had with humans
• Restrictive one with only Jewish tribe to expanded covenant enabled by Jesus’ sacrifice (open to all people)
• Change in covenant, God’s mind

Question 21

Issue of the grounding of God’s goodness

Answer 21

• Attempts to solve Euthyphro dilemma by appealing to God’s intrinsic loving nature vulnerable to issue of accounting for why God’s nature is good
• Euthyphro dilemma = trying to get to bottom of why God’s commands good
• If answer is God’s nature, the question becomes why is God’s nature good or what is it that makes God’s nature good?
• Delays not removes issue

Question 22

Pluralism Objection

Answer 22

• Multiple religions, many more existed in past, potential infinite number we could invent
• If accept DCT, how could we possibly know which God is real, and so which divine commands are the right ones?
• Hume -> fact different religions all have miracle stories means their claims cancel each other out
• Same could be said of different divine commands in different religions

Question 23

Pluralism Objection in Christianity

Answer 23

• Can be developed by pointing to possibility of infinite number of interpretations of the Bible
• Could potentially justify anything since the Bible is infinitely interpretable, or at least to worrying degree
• Pluralism of divine commands issue applies even within Christianity – not just between religions

Question 24

Response to the Pluralism Objection

Answer 24

• Can involve attempting to prove a particular religion is true
• N. T. Wright’s arguments for the historicity resurrection
• Even if successful, still have issue of inter-denominational dispute over divine commands

Question 25

Response - accept Pluralism

Answer 25

-View all religions different cultural manifestations of the divine -> all are true, means they aren't compatible - View held by William James and Hick - James -> mystical religious experience occurring in all religions shows that they are all true - Hick -> different religions of the world like blind men each touching different part of an elephant - Each report feeling something different, too blind to see really part of the same thing - Hick-> main command from divinity in all religions = be righteous and loving -> the command we should follow - Hard to see how all religions could be true given their incompatible truth claims

Question 26

Issue of immoral commands

Answer 26

- Bible seems full of commands which are immoral - “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one who was deceived, it was the woman … But women will be saved through childbearing” - 1 Timothy 2:12 - “If a man lies with a man as he does with a woman, both have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death, their blood is upon them” - Leviticus 20:13. - "The people of Samaria must bear their guilt, because they have rebelled against their God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open.” - Hosea 13:16 - "Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ" - Ephesians 6:5. "Anyone who beats their male or female slave with a rod must be punished if the slave dies as a direct result, but they are not to be punished if the slave recovers after a day or two, since the slave is their property" - Exodus 21:20-21

Question 27

Richard Dawkins - Immoral Commands

Answer 27

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction … [a] bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser … misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal”

Question 28

Liberal Christians - Immoral Commands

Answer 28

- Solve issue through subjective theory of inspiration - Accept the Bible is the product of the human mind, not the perfect word of God - Means the Bible cannot be used as a list of divine commands - Cannot help the divine command theorist

Question 29

Quotes

Answer 29

- William Frankena "the standard of right and wrong is the will of God" - Rev John Robinson "They (religious laws) come down directly from heaven, and are eternally valid" - William Ockham "With Him (God) a thing becomes right solely because He wants it so" - Deuteronomy 13:18 supports moral goodness achieved by following divine commands "the Lord your God will be merciful if you listen and keep to all his commands"