What is Divine Command Theory

• Divine Command Theory


  The view that God is the origin and regulator of morality. God's act of commanding something as good or bad is what makes it good or bad.
• Examples of Divine commands - 10 commandments
• Abraham and Isaac


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


  Mind-independent. If something is objectively true then it is a matter of fact, not of opinion. It cannot be relativised.
• Since right/wrong is a matter of God's command, becoming good or achieving moral goodness is simply a matter of following God's commands.
• Christians believe that God exists and therefore the fundamental nature of reality includes divinity. Since morality is what God commands, morality therefore has a meta-physical foundation in reality.
• If there were a command superior to God's command then God would be inferior to that thing. However, God is all-powerful and cannot be inferior to or subject to anything else.
• If goodness were not a matter of God's command, then God would be unable to change what is good/bad or to make something good/bad. In that case, there would be something God lacks the power to do – which would make him not omnipotent.
• Robert Adams' modified divine command theory


  What God commands is good because it accords with God's omnibenevolent nature.
• This solves the arbitrariness problem because God's choices of what to command are not arbitrary but a consequence of his perfect omnibenevolent nature.
• This also solves the other horn of the Euthyphro dilemma; that God commands what is good because it is good. For Adams, what makes God's commands good is their accordance with God's omnibenevolent nature.
• The issue of the grounding of God's goodness. Attempts to solve the Euthyphro dilemma by appealing to God's intrinsic loving nature are vulnerable to the issue of accounting for why God's nature is good.
• What is the Divine Command Theory?

  • Meta - ethical theory that states morality is dependent on God
  • Moral goodness occurs when moral agents obey God’s commands
• What are the key points of DCT?

  • God is the origin and regulator of morality
  • Right and wrong are objective truths based on God’s will
  • DCT is a requirement for God’s omnipotence
• Explain how God is the origin and regulator of morality

  • People who accept DCT look to sacred texts to find their moral standards
  • For example, Decalogue (Exodus 20) ’You shall not murder,’ - humanity knows that murder is wrong solely because God has commanded it to be
• Explain how right and wrong are objective truths based on God’s will

  • Morality is not influenced by humanity’s personal feelings or logic, but by God’s verdict
  • Right/ wrong is a matter of God’s command, becoming good is to follow God’s commands
• What is William Ockham’s quote on the objectivity of God’s commands?


  ‘With him, a thing becomes right solely because he wants it to be.’
• Why is Divine Command a requirement for God’s omnipotence?

  • It‘s a natural consequence of God’s omnipotence
  • If there was a command superior to God’s command, he’d be inferior to that thing - God is all powerful, he cannot be inferior to anything else
  • if morality was contingent on something else God would not be omnipotent - an omnipotent God must have complete power over everything including morality.
• Explain Robert Adam’s modified DCT

  • Solves Euthyphro’s dilemma by basing DCT on the character of God and His love.
  • God’s commands are good because they’re the commands of a loving God OR any action is wrong if it’s contrary to the commands of a loving God.
  • Example: It’s inconceivable that a loving God would command the torture or killing of innocent people.
• How does Adam’s modified DCT solve the arbitrary problem?

  • God’s commandments are not arbitrary but a consequence of his perfect omnibenevolent nature
  • God cannot and will not change his mind about what’s good because his commands are the result of his perfect unchanging omnibenevolent nature.
• How does Adam’s modified DCT solve the contingency problem?

  • What makes God’s commands good is their accordance with God’s omnibenevolent nature
  • Avoids the threat to omnipotence made by an external standard to which God must conform
  • God is the standard.