DCT

Question 1

What is the Divine Command Theory?

Answer 1

The view that God is the origin and regulator of morality

Question 2

What are some examples of the Divine Command Theory?

Answer 2

• 10 Commandments
• Aquinas’ notion of the divine law
  (God’s revelation to humans)

Question 3

What are the 10 Commandments?

Answer 3

A set of moral religious laws given to God by Moses

Question 4

What is Aquinas’ notion of the divine law?

Answer 4

An eternal and unchangeable law established by God to guide human beings towards their ultimate purpose and moral good

Question 5

What is the story of Abraham and Isaac?

Answer 5

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 is killing your child, it is good

Question 6

God’s command makes something right or wrong in an objective sense. What does this mean?

Answer 6

Objective means 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.

Question 7

What is the Euthyphro dilemma?

Answer 7

Is what God commands good because it is good (1st horn), or is it good because God commands it? (2nd horn).

Question 8

What does the first horn suggest?

Answer 8

The first horn seems to require that goodness is a standard which is independent of God and has some objective status of its own

Question 9

What does the first horn conflict with?

Answer 9

The idea that God cannot do something or is himself held to a standard higher than himself seems to conflict with his omnipotence

Question 10

What does the second horn lead to?

Answer 10

The arbitrariness problem

Question 11

What is the arbitrariness problem?

Answer 11

If God is acting arbitrarily then he cannot be acting based on reasons. The second horn seems to bring God’s judgement into question.

Question 12

Who is Richard Swinburne?

Answer 12

An English philosopher

Question 13

What did Swinburne believe about the Euthyphro dilemma?

Answer 13

Swinburne defends taking the second horn as some moral truths are necessary

Question 14

What are those who accept the second horn called?

Answer 14

Divine command theorists

Question 15

What is the pluralism objection?

Answer 15

There are multiple religions and many more have existed in the past and there are potentially an infinite number that we could invent. Even if we accepted divine command theory, how could we possibly know which God is real, and so which divine commands are the right ones?

Question 16

How could the pluralism objection be developed?

Answer 16

The pluralism objection can be developed by pointing to the possibility of an infinite number of interpretations of the Bible (you could possibly justify anything)

Question 17

What is an approach to dealing with the pluralism objection?

Answer 17

To simply accept pluralism - the view that all religions are just different cultural manifestations of the divine (therefore all are true)

Question 18

What is John Hick’s pluralistic hypothesis?

Answer 18

The different religions of the world are like blind men each touching a different part of an elephant. They each report they are feeling something different - yet that is because they are just too blind to see how they are really part of the same thing.

Question 19

What does Hick claim is the main command from divinity in all religions?

Answer 19

We should be righteous and loving

Question 20

What is the issue of immoral commands?

Answer 20

Divine command theory has the issue that the Bible seems full of commands which are immoral

Question 21

What are two examples of commands which are immoral?

Answer 21

Hosea 13:16
1 Timothy 2:12

Question 22

Hosea 13:16

Answer 22

“The people of Samaria must bear their guilt, because they have rebelled against their God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open.”

Question 23

1 Timothy 2:12

Answer 23

“I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be quiet.”

Question 24

How does Richard Dawkins sum up the immoral commands in the Bible? (quote)

Answer 24

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction”

Question 25

How can the issue of immoral commands in the Bible be solved?

Answer 25

Liberal Christians solve this issue through a subjective theory of inspiration – accepting that the Bible is the product of the human mind, not the perfect word of God

Question 26

What is a problem with the liberal Christian view of the Bible?

Answer 26

Their view means the Bible cannot be used as a list of divine commands and so cannot help the divine command theorist