1A: Divine Command Theory

Question 1

What is Divine Command Theory (DCT)?

Answer 1

• divine command theory is a religious ethic that believes that an action’s status as morally good or bad if completely commanded by God. E.g. stealing is only seen as morally bad because God commanded it that way.
• DCT is a meta-ethical theory. The theory attempts to tell us the nature of morality. DCT tells us that ‘goodness’ is simply east God commands.

Question 2

What are the four sections of Divine Command Theory?

Answer 2

• God as the origin and regulator of morality
• Right and wring as objective truths based on God’s will
• Moral goodness is achieved by complying with divine command
• Divine command as a requirement if God’s omnipotence

Question 3

God as the origin a d regulator of morality:

Answer 3

• DC theories believe that God commands and determines what is moral. Therefore, DCT believes that morality is ultimately completely dependent upon the commands of God. William Frankena was a supporter of the Divine Command Theory - ”the standard of right and wrong is the will… of God.”
• whilst the specific content of the divine commands many vary within religions, all claim that morality is ultimately dependent on God.
• generally, those who accept DCT look to sacred texts to ascertain the commands of God.
• example: 10 Commandments (Exodus 20) ‘do not murder’, therefore humanity knows that murder in morally wrong because God has commanded it this way.

Question 4

Right and wrong as objective truths based on God’s will:

Answer 4

• right and wrong are objective truths because God determines this. This means that morality is not influences by human feelings, opinions or reasonings about what is right and wrong. For example, it doesn’t matter what humanity thinks about the issue of stealing; it is wrong as God commanded it to be morally incorrect.
• therefore, God’s will alone decides what is right and wrong and human feelings have no authority, this is because God has total authority.
• William Ockham: ”With Him (God) a thing becomes right solely because He wants it so.“

Question 5

Moral Goodness is achieved by complying with divine command:

Answer 5

• if a person wishes to be moral the only way this is possible is by following the commands of God, i.e. moral obligation consists purely in been obedient to God’s commands.
• some followers of Christianity, Judaism and Is,and believe that not following God’s divine commands can lead to a moral agent facing God’s wrath. For example, Adam and Eve were expelled from the GoE for not following the commands of God.
• the idea that moral goodness is achieved by following divine commands is strongly supported in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 13:18). It states: ‘the Lord your God will be merciful if you listen and keep to all his commands’

Question 6

Divine command as a requirement if God’s omnipotence:

Answer 6

• supporters justify the theory by stating that it is a natural consequence of God’s omnipotence. An omnipotent God by definition must have complete power over everything, including morality.
• if God didn’t have complete power over morality this would suggest that God is not all powerful. This is because ‘something else’ would have control over what is right and wrong. This would mean that ‘this’ would be more powerful than God, destroying the belief that he is omnipotent. Consequently, God has to control morality or He wouldn’t be omnipotent.
• if a religious believer accepts God is omnipotent, they also must have to accept the principle of Divine Command Theory, i.e. God is the creator of morality.

Question 7

Robert Adams; ‘Modified Divine Command Theory’:

Answer 7

• called the ‘Modified Divine Command Theory’
• Adams starts by restating the normal DCT, e.g. if ‘X’ is wrong because God has commanded ‘X’ to be wrong, therefore it is God that commands moral truths. For example, God commands that stealing is wrong and therefore it is an eternal and universal moral truth that stealing is wrong; thus, it becomes our religious duty not to steal.

Question 8

What is the challenge to the Modified Divine Command Theory?

Answer 8

• what if God was to command that ‘X’ is moral when human logic would conclude ‘X’ is immoral. Therefore, a seemingly immoral act would then become good (a moral truth) mad humanities duty would be to follow it.
• for example, if God commanded that murder was good, then Divine Command Theory would have to concede that’s this was a moral truth, even though human logic solidly conclude murder is wrong. Therefore, Divine Command Theory allows God to command cruelty.

Question 9

What are the challenges to the DCT?

Answer 9

• the Euthyphro Dilemma
• the Arbitrariness Problem
• the Pluralism Objection

Question 10

What is the Euthyphro Dilemma?

Answer 10

• proposed by Ancient Greek philosopher Plato
• God has the potential to command something to be moral when human logic would conclude to be immoral. For example, if God commanded that murder was moral, then DCT would have to accept that it was a moral truth.
• ultimately DCT allows God to demand cruelty

Question 11

What is the Arbitrariness Problem?

Answer 11

• proposes that Divine Command Theory appears to render the content of morality arbitrary.
• what is good and bad is based solely on God’s impulses which isn’t an adequate foundation for universal morality.

Question 12

What is the Pluralism Objection?

Answer 12

• due to there being many different religions within the world, it is impossible to know which God’s commands should be followed. Especially as some religious commands contradict other religious commands making it impossible to be able to accept them all. For example, in Islam divorce is seen as morally acceptable, however, in Christianity God has commanded this as morally wrong.
• moreover, there can often be contradictions within the same religion. E.g. Catholics believe that contraception is morally wrong whilst Protestants disagree with this.

Question 13

What is Robert Adams’ counter argument to the Euthyphro Dilemma?

Answer 13

• Adams concedes that whilst it is logically possible for God to command cruelty because He is omnipotent. However, Adams claims that it would be unthinkable for God to do this because of His omnibenevolent nature.
• Adams argues that God’s onmibenvolent nature will be rooted in the moral commands He has given. Therefore, it would be impossible for God to command anything that is cruel because this would counter His omnibenevolent nature.
• Therefore, Adams states “any action is ethical,y wrong if and only if it is contrary to the commands of a loving God. Thus, if cruelty appeared to be divinely commanded, Adams argues that this cannot be a true command of God.