Divine Command Theory

what is the view presented in DCT?

God is the origin and regulator of morality

What makes something good or bad according to one view presented in DCT?

God’s act of commanding something as good r bad is what makes it good or bad e.g. 10 commandments and Aquinas’ notion of the ‘divine law’ - God’s revelation to humans

If God commands something, then what is it considered to be?

Good, a moral act

what is an example of this?

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

What does God’s command make something?

God’s command makes something right or wrong in an objective way

what does it mean if it is applied in a objective sense?

If something is objectively true then it is a matter of fact, not of opinion. It is a universal truth. It cannot be relativised

How can you achieve moral goodness?

Since right/wrong is a mater of God’s command, becoming good or achieving moral goodness is simply a matter of following God’s commands

what do Christians believe about God?

That he exists and therefore the fundamental nature of reality includes divinity

sinve morality is what God commands, what does morality have?

Morality therefore has a metaphysical foundation in reality

What would happen if there was a command superior to God’s command?

God would be inferior to that thing. However, God is all powerful and cannot be inferior to or subject to anything else

if goodness were not a matter of God’s command, then what would God be unable to do?

God would be unable to change what is good/bad or to make something good/bad. In that case, there would be something God lacks the power to do - which would make him not omnipotent

What does omnipotent power have to include?

Power over morality

what is a dilemma, in philosphy?

When there are two ways something could be, each way leading to a problem

what are the two options called in a philosophical dilemma?

Horns

what is the Euthyphro dilemma?

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

What is the idea of God’s omnibenevolence?

God is perfectly good

What does the Euthyphro dilemma show?

There are two ways we could understand God being perfectly good

What is the first horn?

What God commands is intrinsically good independtly of God. This suggests that God is perfectly good because he perfectly follows an intrinsicaly good moral standard that is separate from Go

what does this problem lead to?

A conflict with omnipotence, since this external moral stanbdrad is beyond God’s power to control

what is the second horn?

It is God’s acting of commanding something that makes it good

what does this suggest about god?

God is perfectly good because perfectly good is whatever God commands it to be

what problem does this lead to?

The arbitrariness problem, that God could change his mind about what is good snd moral

What do divine command theorists attempt to do?

either defend the second horn from the arbitrariness problem or reject the Euthyphro dilemma as a false dilemma