evaluation of Adams modified DCT

What evidence is there of God changing his mind about morality in the Bible? Refer to the Sermon on the Mount

God changing his mind about the moral code we need to live by. Jesus also changed some of the old testament laws, in the sermon on the mount, e,g, ‘eye for an eye’ into ‘turn the other cheek’

How do Christians respond to this idea that God changed his mind?

This was no Gpd changing his mind, it was God changing the covenant he had with humans from the restrictive one had had only with the Jewish tribe to the expanded covenant enabled by Jesus’ sacrifice which became open to all people

What would Christians argue about this?

It was a change in covenant, not in God’s mind

what are the attempts to solve the dilemma by appealing to God’s nature, vulnerable to?

Accounting for why God’s nature is good - the dilemma is trying to get to the bottom of why/what it is that makes God’s commands good

what is the Pluralism objection?

There are multiple religions and many more have existed in the past and there are potentially an infinite number that we could invent

What is the problem with this?

How could we know which God is real?

What did Hume say about religions and the miracles that happen within each religion?

Hume said that the different meanings anf occurrences of miracles in different religions cancel each other out, the same could be said about different divine commands in different religions

How can the Pluralism objection be developed? What can we point to in the Bible?

Pointing to the possibility of an infinite number of interpretations of the Bible

Where does the Pluralism objection apply outside of other religions?

Within Christianity

how can we respond to the Pluralism objection? Which scholar can we refer to? (resurrection)

Attempting to prove a religion as true, such as N. T. Wright’s arguments for the hisoricity resurrection

How else cpuld we respond to the Pluralism objection?

To accept the Pluralism objection - the view that all religions are different cultural manifestions of the divine, meaning they are all true

what does this mean for religions?

They are not compatible

which two scholars hold this view?

Will aim James and Hick

what does William believe?

Mystical experience occurring in all religions shows that they are all true

what does Hick argue?

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 this is because they are just too blind to see how they are really part of the same thing

what does Hick claim?

The main command from divinity in all religions is that we should be righteous and loving, so this is the command we should follow

what is it hard to see?

How all religions could be true given their incompatible truth claims

what issue does DCT have?

The Bible seems to be full of commands which are immoral

what si an example of this in Timothy?

‘I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man;she must be quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve.’ 1 Timothy 2:12

what is a quote from Dawkins regarding God?

‘The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction… a bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser… misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidcal.’

how do Liberal christians respond to this?

They 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

what does this mean for the divine command theorist?

The Bible cannot be used as a list of divine commands and so cannot help them