Evaluation

• Strengths of Divine Command Theory

  • The best way
  • Universal
  • Straight forward
  • Links to the afterlife
  • No human error
• The best way

  • Grounds Christian moral behaviour in the teachings of God
  • God is omniscient and omnibenevolent, so God's commands will be right
• The best way is outdated as the Bible is old, the Church does not align itself with modern beliefs on gender and sexuality and religion is declining
• The best way evaluation point places authority in a metaphysical God who is not on earth and not human
• The best way relies on God being exactly what we think he is, if he is not then the entirety of Divine Command Theory is flawed
• Universal

  • Divine Command Theory is always right in all places
  • Avoids the problem of trying to sort out problems in different countries at different times
• The universal evaluation point is strong as the Pope makes the rules for Roman Catholics and there are Roman Catholic churches all over the world, however this is only due to western imperialism and missionaries
• A weakness of the universal evaluation point is that if Church leaders have significantly more power, then a lot of people will not be heard
• Straight forward

  • What God says goes
• The straight forward evaluation point is flawed as the Bible is the word of God, and yet it can be misinterpreted, mistranslated and seen to be irrelevant to modern society
• A weakness of the straight forward evaluation point is that the Pope provides insight for Roman Catholics, however he uses faith and reason, so it is not straight forward and is instead down to his own personal interpretation
• No human weakness

  • God is omnipotent and omnipresent, so is totally aware of people's good and bad deeds
  • God is a fair judge
• The no human weakness evaluation point is flawed as every human interpretation of God's word is biased
• The no human weakness evaluation point is flawed as there is no accommodation for individual circumstance when judging sin
• Weaknesses:

  • How do we know it's God?
  • Immoral commandments
  • Autonomy
• How do we know it is God?

  • We have no original version of the Old Testament
  • The Original New Testament is written in Greek and Jesus spoke in Aramaic
• One strength of the how do we know its God evaluation point is mistranslations as they can lead to God's word being misconstrued
• A flaw of the how do we know it is God argument is that Christians have faith that it is God, it is another component of the religion that requires faith
• A strength of the how do we know its God argument is that every word has to be interpreted, so it is never truly God's word
• A weakness of the how do you know its God argument is that the logic can be applied to anything: how do you know your conscience isn't God
• Immoral commands

  • Slavery is justified in Titus
  • Homosexuality is condemned in Leviticus
  • If some commands are immoral, the Divine Command Theory offers no real solution to the normative ethical question of which moral command should be followed
• A flaw in the immoral commands argument is that it holds the Bible to an impossibly high standard of critique: the law has had to evolve and previously condoned immoral actions, however it has been allowed to grow and change to reflect the times
• A weakness in the immoral commands argument is that misinterpretations and rewritings of the Bible have changed certain quotes to reflect what people wanted believing at the time
• Autonomy

  • No free will
  • The promise of heaven or hell could mean Divine Command Theory is followed out of self-interest
  • Morality should be based on reason, not religious belief