Divine Command Theory

Question 1

Augustine

Answer 1

The study of ethics is the Summun Bonum (source of all happiness).
Setting God as the object of all our love, humans achieve greatest happiness by properly loving others.

Question 2

How does Augustine respond to the God commanding evil?

Answer 2

God can ‘suspend’ immorality.

Question 3

Aquinas

Answer 3

God’s commands are related to human nature.
Humans are fulfilled by living the ‘good life’, which is marked by loving God and other people.
God decides what is due to all people.

Question 4

How does Aquinas respond to God commanding evil?

Answer 4

God decides what is due to each person so it is not immoral. Isaac’s death would not be murder if he was slain due to God’s command. God’s authority is overriding in these scenarios.

Question 5

How does William of Ockham respond to God commanding evil?

Answer 5

Morally bad actions can be performed by God without any moral evil. Those who obey God perform morally meritous action.

Question 6

How does Swinburne respond to the problem of God commanding evil?

Answer 6

God, as creator and owner of all life, has the right to decide what is to be done with his property.
Dan 4:35 “He does as He pleases … no one can stop Him or say to Him ‘What do you mean by doing these things?’”

Question 7

Give the five main points of DCT.

Answer 7

1. Morality is determined by God. “The standard of right and wrong is the will or law of God”- Frankena.
2. Humans have no moral authority.
3. The only way to be moral is to follow God’s command.
4. DCT is the natural consequence of God’s omnipotence.
5. Objective, metaphysical, not testable.

Question 8

What is meant by Divine Command Theory?

Answer 8

Morality is internal to God.
All goodness comes from God. We need to respect his “right order”. Without God there is no order and no divinity to answer to.

Question 9

Give Biblical instances of God commanding evil.

Answer 9

Josh 6:17-21 (God commands Joshua to destroy the city of Jericho)
Genesis 22 (God commands Abraham to sacrifice Isaac)

Question 10

Give a quote from Dostoyevsky in support of Divine Command Theory.

Answer 10

“If God doesn’t exist, everything is permissable.”

Question 11

Phillip Quinn

Answer 11

“Morality depends, at least in part, upon the will of God.”
The difference between versions of DCT is a matter of how this dependance relation is understood.

Question 12

Kant

Answer 12

Morality requires faith in God and an afterlife.

Question 13

Clark and Poortenga

Answer 13

(Drawing upon moral theory of Aquinas) Given our human nature, some activities/ actions fulfill us; others do not.
Once God has created us with a certtain nature, he cannot arbitrarily decide what is good or bad for us.
Without stable grounding, how is the decision made to create humans with this nature?

Question 14

What is the premise of Adams’ Modified DCT?

Answer 14

DCT is only acceptable “if God has the character of loving his human creatures.”
Soemthing is wrong only if it goes against the commands that are rooted in God’s character.
God’s commands are expressions of his omnibenevolence.

Question 15

How does Adams’ DCT evade the arbitrariness problem?

Answer 15

God’s commands are not arbitrary; they are rooted in his unchanging omnibenevolent nature.

Question 16

How does Adams’ DCT respond to the problem of omnipotence?

Answer 16

Morality exists internally to God. God isn’t subject to any external moral law.
God does not equal goodness. Goodness is only an essential characteristic of Him. Morality is a reflection of God’s nature.

Question 17

How does Adams define traditional DCT?

Answer 17

“The theory that the wrongness of an action is contrary to God or that the word wrong means contrary to God’s commands.”
Adams disagrees, as this on the basis of the arbitrariness problem, which his DCT evades. He adits that his theory would break down if God commanded cruelty for tis own sake.

Question 18

How is moral wrongness revealed in modified DCt?

Answer 18

Non-natural objective facts do not exist in science. Morality is revealed by the will of God.

Question 19

How does Adams respond to God commanding evil?

Answer 19

It is logically possible for God to command evil, but unthinkable that he would do so.

Question 20

Who supports Adams’ view?

Answer 20

William of Ockham: If God commanded cruelty, it would be obligatory. God’s character simply makes this unlikely.

Question 21

Michael Austin

Answer 21

(In support of Adams’ Modified DCT)
God’s perfect nature is unchanging meaning the morality he ordains is consistent and permanent.
“God therefore retains his supreme moral and metsphysicla status”

Question 22

How does Adams critique the subjectivity of traditional DCT?

Answer 22

“the theory that cannot be reasonably offered except as a theory of what the word ‘wrong’ means as used by some, but not all, people in ethical contexts”
(may be used in support of the argument that DCT makes morality irrelevant to non-believers)

Question 23

How does Adams critique traditional DCT on the basis of omission of God’s omnibenelovence?

Answer 23

“The statement that something is ‘wrong’ says something about the will of God, but not about his love.”

Question 24

What does Adams say regarding God’s command of cruelty?

Answer 24

“The modified DCT believes it is logically impossible that God should command cruelty for its own sake, but that it is unthinkable that God should do so.”

Question 25

What is Plato’s critique of DCT?

Answer 25

The Euthyphro Dilemma:
(relevant to any theory attributing morailty to God)
Plato wrote dialogues between Socrates and others.
Euthyphro plans to take his father to court, leading Socrates to state that he must be certain of his moral values to do this. Euthyphro claims that “piety” is determined by what the gods love, to which Socrates answers “is something good because the gods love it, or do the gopds love it because it is pious?”

Question 26

Outline the two prongs of the Euthyphro dilemma.

Answer 26

1. If the gods love it because it is good, moral values are objective and independent of them. Standards of good stand over the gods’ freedom to decide, questioning their omnipotence.
2. The Arbitrariness Problem- If it is good because the gods love it, they equally could have made the opposite decision.

Question 27

How does Adams aim to evade both prongs of the Euthyphro dilemma?

Answer 27

1. God is not subject to any external moral law. Morality is internal to God as a reflection of his character.
2. Morality is rooted in God’s unchangeably perfect nature. It is not arbitrary as it is an eternal reflection of his nature.

Question 28

Elizabeth Anscombe

Answer 28

Moral terms, such as “should” and “ought”, acquired a legalistic sense because of Christianity’s broad outreach. Moral law requires a divine lawmaker. But as society moves away from belief in God, we should abandon moral belief that rests upon it. We should abandon talk of moral law in favour of morality as a virtue.

Question 29

John Arthur

Answer 29

“If God approves kindness because it is a virtue, and hates Nazis beause they were evil, then it seems that God discovers morality rather than inventing it.”
This is a development of the Euthyphro dilemma with the implication that God is no longer sovereign over the entire universe, becoming subject to external moral law.
Becomes a problem for theists placing God at the top of a Great Chain of Being.

Question 30

Kai Nelson

Answer 30

(Ethics Without God)
Religion and morality are logically independent. Interrogates the basis for the claim that God is good. The claim that God is good itself depends on prior criterion determining goodness as something apart from the fact that God exists.

Question 31

Baggini’s objection

Answer 31

(to Adams’ DCT)
By saying that morality is internal to a benevolent God, we are just restating the dilemma- is God good because He is God or becuase He is good?

Question 32

What type of theory is DCT?

Answer 32

Objective, meta-ethical, absolutist theory

Question 33

Give the basic implications of DCT?

Answer 33

If God din’t exist, there would be no morality.
God is the creator, so all goodness comes from God. We also need to respect His “right order” in creation. Without a Creator, there is no “order” and no divine being to be answerable to.
If God doesn’t exist, there are no God-given laws to obey, and only man to answer to.

Question 34

Give a quote on DCT from Dostoyevsky.

Answer 34

“If God doesn’t exist, everything is permissible.”

Question 35

Give an analogy explaining DCT.

Answer 35

God is an army general; Christians are His soldiers. They know the general has a strategic victory plan, so they follow his orders even if they don’t see the reasoning.

Question 36

Can God command evil?

Answer 36

Joshua 6:17-21 God commanded Joshua to destroy the city of Jericho, killing all living things without exception.
Genesis 22 God commanded Abraham to kill Isaac as a sacrifice.
By such commands, was God “suspending” moral law? Or was He changing it so that all evil action actually becomes good? Is God a relativist? Are moral laws relative to his will?

Question 37

Why is it a problem if God can command evil?

Answer 37

We think God’s laws (“Do not kill”) are absolute, but if God can will “evil” then morality becomes arbitrary, rooted in nothing but His will. This is known as the arbitrariness problem in DCT.

Question 38

What responses are made to the arbitrariness problem in DCT?

Answer 38

William of Ockham- morally bad actions can be performed by God without any evil. Those who obey perform a morally meritorious action.
Augustine- (Abraham and Isaac) The divine command doesn’t actually change morality, but rather suspends moral wrongness of the act.
Aquinas- God decides what is due to each person. If Isaac is slain by God’s command, it wasn’t murder. God’s authority is an over-riding reason for doing something (like if miracle overrides the laws of science, God isn’t held to any external laws).
Swinburne- God has the right to decide what is done with his property. (Dan 4:35 “He does as He pleases… no one can stop with or say to him “What do you mean by these things?””).

Question 39

How can these criticisms (to the arbitrariness problem) be resolved?

Answer 39

All responses come from religious believers- biased.