divine command theory

• Plato wrote 'Euthyphro'
• The plot of Euthyphro:

  • Euthyphro takes his father to court for murder
  • his father's negligence caused the death of a worker
  • Socrates is also waiting at the court
  • the two begin a dialogue about wether God dictates morality
• The dilemma posed in 'Euthyphro' is named the 'Euthhyphro Dilemma'
• Euthyphro: 'Well I should certainly say that what's holy is whatever all the God's approve of, its opposite, what all the God's disapprove of, is unholy'
• Socrates: 'is the holy approved by the Gods because it's holy, or is it holy because it's approved?'
• Divine command theory is also referred to as 'theological voluntarism'
• 'They are the commandments which God gives, the laws which he lays down... they come down direct from Heaven, and are eternally laid for human conduct' J.A.T Robinson ('Honest to God')
• 'certain things are always 'sins'...whether or not they are judged by differing human societies to be 'crimes'' - J.A.T Robinson ('Honest to God')
• The problem with divine command theory is that it proposes that God could dictate that something is moral which is generally considered wrong - there is evidence of God doing this in the Bible
• Robert Adams modified divine command theory states that God is intrinsically omnibenevolent and so morality will always be based in omnibenevolence
• morality is not arbitrary under Adams' Divine Command Theory as it is grounded in the unchanging, omnibenevolent nature of God
• Adams' theory also does not undermine God's omnipotence as he claims that morality originates with God