Divine Command Theory

• Divine Command Theory is...


  An ethical approach that states that morality is what God decrees right or wrong.
• Also known as...

  Theological voluntarism.
• Objective or subjective


  Objective
• Requires a belief in...

  Free will
• Premise 1: God is omnipotent, and so he has...


  total freedom to do whatever he wants.
• Premise 2: he chooses not to act unfairly because...


  he is benevolent.
• Premise 4: humans, being powerless, should...


  obey God's law.
• "God does not conform to an independently existing standard of goodness; rather, ...


  God himself is the standard of goodness" - William of Ockham
• "There are some whose killing God orders...

  either by law, or by an expressed command" - Augustine
• "I reply that hatred, theft, adultery, can be performed...

  meritiously on Earth if they should fall under a divine command" - William of Ockham
• Euthyphro Dilemma


  "Is it good because God commands it or does God command it because it is good?"
• Horn one: The arbitrariness problem


  Something is good because God commands it

  This means morality can change as God likes it

  This goes against God's fair and just nature; God could command cruelty and it would be moral

  An example of this is when he commands the destruction and the genocide of the people of Jericho
• Horn two: good exists independently of God


  God commands it because it is good

  This would mean a standard of goodness exists beyond God

  This denies God's omnipotence and authority

  Where does right and wrong come from if not God?
• Pluralism


  A condition or system in which two or more states, groups or principles or sources of authority coexist

  For example, wine is used in certain Christian events, but alcohol is forbidden in Islam

  Some faiths believe in a single omnipotent God, whereas some believe in multiple Gods with specific powers

  Many old and new testament ideas contradict each other
• Modified Divine Command Theory


  A version of the Divine Command Theory that seeks to appease the Euthyphro Dilemma
• Kant believed that morality required faith in God because it is...

  impossible to control morality ourselves: there must be a higher being that does that. The requirements of morality are too much for us to bear. Being moral doesn't guarantee happiness, so there must be a God to reward the righteous.
• William Lane Craig believes that ethics is grounded in God because God...


  holds us accountable for our moral conduct; those who do good go to heaven, those who do evil go to hellholds us accountable for our moral conduct; those who do good go to heaven, those who do evil go to hell. Good, in the end, triumphs over evil
• Robert Adams argued that "the modified divine command theory believes it is logically possible that God should...


  command cruelty for its own sake, but it is unthinkable that God should do so"; the arbitrariness problem does make sense, but its unlikely God would change morality on a whim
• Robert Adams' first two solutuons to the arbitriness problem:


  It is logically possible for God to command cruelty for its own sake and so it is senseless to debate it.

  God could command cruelty for its own sake, which would we would have to obey.
• Adams doesn't find these explanations acceptable because there is no logical reason why it is impossible for God to...


  command cruelty for its own sake, and it is also abhorrent in Christian theology that he could ever do so, as it doesn't reflect his benevolence.
• The third solution is that the idea of cruelty being wrong means it is against God's command, which Adams...


  agrees with but only if God is believed to be benevolent.
• Peter Geach argues that the Divine Command Theory is unnecessary because he believes that...


  actions are morally good or bad in themselves because God commands them.
• Julian Baggini responded to Adams' modified DCT by pointing out that it raises another question:


  "Is God's nature good because it is God's or because it is good?"
• "God, if he exists at all, is the...

  greatest relativist of them all" - Julian Baggini