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Divine Command Theory (WHAT IS IT? (Christian Divine Command Theory, not…
Divine Command Theory
WHAT IS IT?
not always unambiguous because it leaves open the question of how we know what it is that God forbids - throughout history, different religions have taken different views about what God requires in terms of morality
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whatever God commands must be good, because God is the source of all goodness, and what he forbids must be evil
SCHOLARS
John Calvin
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"The will of God is the supreme rule of righteousness, so that everything which he wills must be held to be righteous by the mere fact of his willing."
Karl Barth
not surprised that people have always tried to understand the general ethical problem and to define what is good
commands of God set Christian ethics totally apart from general discussions about what is good or right - override fallible human debate on moral issues
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STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES
Strengths
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rules are universal and are right for all times and places - avoids the problem of trying to sort out different moral ideas in different countries at different times
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there is an end goal - most Christians link God's moral commands with the promise of life after death
God does not have any of the weaknesses of human judges - he is omniscient and omnipresent, so is totally aware of people's good and bad deeds
Weaknesses
even if moral commands in the Bible come from God, we cannot tell whether they are as God gave them - no original version of any Old Testament book
Bible contains what most people would consider to be immoral commands; such as views towards slavery and homosexual behaviour
Divine Command Theory does not really offer a free choice - promise of heaven and threat of hell means people will choose to follow God's commands out of self-interest; morality should be based on reason, not religious beliefs
THE EUTHYPHRO DILEMMA: 1. Is conduct right because the gods commands it, or 2. do the gods command it because it is right?
if you accept 1, God loses moral goodness - whatever God commands must be good by definition, but leads to the specific problem of God making immoral decisions
if you accept 2, God loses omnipotence - God commands an action because it is good in itself, but "How does God know that it is good in itself?"