Ethics 1A: Divine Command Theory

Meta-Ethical- What we mean by what is right and what is wrong

Meta: beyond

Meta ethical theory- Theory of what is good, bad, moral, immoral

Divide Command Theory

  1. God is all powerful and so has total freedom to do whatever he wishes

  2. God chooses not to act unfairly, because that would be inconsistent with his nature

  3. Therefore, God orders the universe by his Divine Law

  4. humans, Being powerless, must obey God’s Law

Strengths of Divine Command Theory

  1. fits in with the Christian idea that God is omnipotent. But also fits in with the idea of Divine Sovereignty

    —> also with the Monotheistic nature of Judeo-Christianity as it shows God with all power

  2. fits in with the idea of God as the Creator of the universe who expects humans to care for the environment

    —> Stewardship to God’s world

  3. It is an Objective moral system, not based on human emotions or consequences

    —> absolute + can be applied to all situations and all people

  4. emphasises the virtue of Obedience

    —> ‘Slaves of Christ’ (Ephesians 6.6)

Weaknesses of the Divine command theory

1. Euthyphro Dilemma:

Plato

  1. Does God decide what is good and what is bad?

  2. or do moral values come from an independent source which is totally separate from the gods?

Thesis:

  • questions God omnipotence, because morality therefore is Independent of God —>Where does morality come from?

    • God himself is at the mercy of being judged on accordance of the standard of morality

      • in theory, God can do wrong

  • God commands are arbitary

Counter:

God commands are rooted in his character—> omnibenevolence

God commands in a manner that shows us his character

Therefore, morality reflects Gods character, it is not that he commands it because it is good for that, it Will always reflect his character

2.Pluralism objection

John Hick: Pluralist

Uses the dispersive prisms

white light= universal truth and meaning colours= different religious viewpoints Problem with Pluralism: what should we follow? lots of traditions but from different frames of reference—> should i go to church on Sunday should I eat pork? Should I divorce

3.Ockham’s Razor

William of Ockham: English medieval philosopher

most likely outcome/explination is the correct one

  1. whatever God wills is morally right and

  2. God has total power to make evil good

Ockham said that God has total power (de potentia absoluta) but he limits himself

Ockham argues, God could make good evil and vice versa but he choses not to do this

—> Ockham’s solution was rejected by the Protestant reformers of the 16th century because it placed a limit on God’s freedom.

4.Peter Geach

Peter Geach:

argues that the DCT is unnecessary, he believes that actions are morally good or bad in themselves

—> God will always command what is morally good, his role in moral decision making is an unnecassary distraction

Geach agrees with the second part of Euthypro dilemma

5.Problem of Obedience

some writers disagree with the idea that Obedience is a virtue

—> ‘Slaves of Christ’ (Ephesians 6.6)

to suggest that it is an important virtue in DCT, it is not an agreeble position to take

—> without allowing for free will, it takes away the gift given by God, one would expect human beings to use that gift

6.Problem of Supervienience

Christians sometimes take a teaching from the Bible that does not talk about ethics and then apply it to an ethical problem

—> for example ‘God made humans in his own image’ is applied to abortion

we do not know what God’s commands would be for modern day issues,