Divine Command Theory

Classical DCT (Fundamentalist Christians/Orthodox Jews) Soft DCT/Weaker DCT (Liberal Christians + Reform Jews) Modified DCT Euthyphro Dilemma Arbitrariness problem Pluralism objection

“They are the commandments which God gives, the laws which he lays down…They come down direct from Heaven, and are eternally valid for human conduct…Certain things are always ‘wrong’ and ‘nothing can make them right’, and certain things are always ‘sins’, whether or not they are judged by differing human societies to be be ‘crimes’.

JAT Robinson - Goodness is what God commands. There is an objective standard for ethics that originates with God.

“God commands Joshua to sack the city of Jericho and kill all living creatures, men women, children and animals”

Joshua 5:13 - 15, 6:21-24. Example of divine command.

10 commandments/ revelations (in Qur’an) + Book of Leviticus

Divine commands that give us reason to be moral - to please God. Simple. Human beings are directed to right behaviour.

“Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.”

“Whoever does any work on it (Sabbath) must be put to death”

“If a man has sexual relations with a man.. both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death: their blood will be on their heads”

“Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy your slaves”

Problematic Divine Commands - all contradict ‘thou shall not murder’

1) Exodus 21:17

2) Exodus 35:2 - Allows death penalty

3) Leviticus 20:13 - Bans homosexuality

4) Leviticus 25:44 - Allows slavery

Morally dubious conclusions for society we live in

Idea that the bible is outdated and cannot be looked to for guidance.

Richard Dawkins. Anti-theist. We can’t follow commands that were morally right 2000 years ago. The world has progressed and the Bible is too limited. One uses it for moral violence.

“There are no objective values”. Maintains that values, the good, right and wrong are not part of the fabric of the world. Don’t exist!!

J.L Mackie - A modern relativist. DCT is absolutist, but he says this is where the theory fails, as everything is circumstantial.

“Is the holy approved by the Gods because it is holy or is it holy because it is approved by the Gods?”

Socrates in Plato’s Dialogue. The Euthyphro Dilemma: Problem with DCT. Is X good because God commands it or does God command X because it’s good?

“The idea that God could just decree that all that we thought evil was in fact good and vice versa seems to make a mockery of the seriousness of ethics. It makes right and wrong ultimately arbitrary.”

Julian Baggini. The arbitrariness problem - problem with DCT. Good and bad was chosen by God on a ‘whim’/ at random. These are not an adequate foundation for morality.

Any action is still wrong “if and only if it is contrary to the commands of a loving God” - it is inconceivable that a loving God would command torture or the killing of innocent people.

Robert Adams: Modified DCT in response to the Euthyphro Dilemma. Not saying God couldn’t choose murder to be good, but he wouldn’t randomly ‘choose’ morality.

With Adams’ modified DCT, “God therefore retains His supreme moral and metaphysical status”

Michael Austin. Mod DCT retains that right and wrong are objective properties of God: we have no judgement in them.

“This does’t seem to work however, because the dilemma can just be restated: is God’s nature good because it is good or good because it is God’s?”

Julian Baggini. Usurps R. Adam’s response to Euthyphro Dilemma

“Abortion is worse than killing one’s parents” - Hinduism

Pikuach nefesh

When does life begin? Quickening, point of viability, birth

Pluralism problem - which religion/system should we follow? E.g: Abortion has so many different opinions.