Ethical Thought- Divine Command Theory Flashcards
Divine command theory- background
An action’s status as morally good or bad is completely commanded by God. It is a meta-ethical theory (will tell us the nature of morality.)
Key points
God is the origin of morality.
Right and wrong are objective truths based of God’s will.
Moral goodness is achieved by complying with God’s command.
Diving command follows from God’s omnipotence.
God is the origin of morality
An act that is moral is determined by what God commands, those who accept divine command ethics look to sacred texts to reveal God’s commands, (eg. the 10 commandments from the bible). One of the 10 commandments is “you shall not murder”. Therefore murder is morally wrong. But before the 10 commandments, murder was still seen as bad.
Right and wrong are objective truths based on God’s will.
Objective truths- not influenced by humanities personal feelings, opinions or reasoning’s. An act is wrong because God has commanded it that way. God has total authority.
Moral goodness is achieved by complying with God’s command
If a person wishes to be moral, they have to follow God’s commands. Christianity offers a good reason why God’s commands should be followed- Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden for not following God’s command also eternal life in Hell.
In the Bible it says, “the Lord your God will be merciful if you listen and keep to all his commands”.
Divine command follow’s God’s omnipotence
An omnipotent God by definition must have complete power over everything, if God didn’t have complete power over morality, God is not all powerful. If something else controlled whats right and wrong, this would destroy God’s omnipotence as the something else would be more powerful.
Adam’s- Modified divine command theory
He believed that it seems possible that God could command people to do horrible things, eg. torture and rape. If God commanded us to do these, it would make them good actions.
Adam’s 2 main principles
“an act is wrong if and only if it is contrary to God’s will or commands”
“any action is ethically wrong if and only if it is contrary to the commands of a loving God”.
Challenges to divine command theory- The euthyphro dilemma
The euthyphro dilemma- “is something good because God command’s it or does God command it because it is good?” the first option means that literally anything God commands would be right. The second option suggests that God is restricted in what he can/can’t command.
Response- Adam’s- something is good because God commands it, since God is omnipotent he wouldn’t command anything terrible.
Challenges to divine command theory- The arbitrariness problem
Arbitrary means based on random choice or personal whim rather than any reason or system. This destroys all the love of God and all his glory.
Response- God’s choices are not arbitrary, since he is omniscient and perfectly just, his commands will always be objectively right.
Challenges to divine command theory- The pluralism problem
It’s not know which religious command’s should be followed/ which God as some religions contradict each other. eg. Catholics see contraception as wrong, but Protestants believe God doesn’t command this.
Response- we have incomplete and limited understanding of God. (blind men and the elephant).
