The omnibenevolence of God

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Morality is arbitrary (Henry but mainly lottie)

The Euthyphro Dilemma

Is God able to make right wrong / wrong right?

IS ‘GOD IS GOOD’ A TAUTOLOGY?

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Is morality what God wills it to be? (SECOND HORN)

GOOD IS THE SAME PROPERTY AS WHAT GOD WILLS

Is morality something independent of God? (FIRST HORN)

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The discussion so far supports the view that morality is whatever God wills.
However, this faces a powerful objections

If God suddenly says that it is alright to murder your baby, it will become morally right to do so.

If good is whatever God wills, then morality becomes arbitrary - why does God will what he wills?

Murdering healthy babies with a sharp rock will always remain morally wrong, no matter what God says

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If good is whatever God wills, then ‘God is good’ doesn’t say anything substantial about God. Whatever God wills is by definition good. ‘God is good’ means no more than ‘God wills whatever God wills’. It states a tautology

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However, this puts a constraint on God - if God can't change morality, God can't be omnipotent

There cannot be a moral reason guiding his will if he created morality, but if God has no reason to do what he does then there is no reason or logical structure to morality.

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Reply: ‘God is good’ means ‘God is good to us’, i.e. God loves us and wants what is
best for us. And what is best for us can be understood in a way that is not
dependent on whatever God wills.

Objection: But then, there is some standard of what is good, viz. what is best for
us, which is independent of what God wills.

Gods will does not respond to anything independent of it

Reply: ‘God is good’ should be understood metaphysically, not morally: ‘God is
good’ just means that God has all perfections.

Objection: But then what is the connection between the metaphysical sense of
‘good’ and the moral sense of ‘good’? Does God being perfect entail that God is
morally good? If so, then ‘God is (morally) good’ is still a tautology. If not, then is
morality independent of metaphysical perfection?

Here are two possible replies:

this means it is not arbitrary

morality is the same thing as what god will

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BUT 'god is good' is NOT an analytic truth

goodness is the same property as what god wills

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Supporters: Divine Command Theory

Supporters: Naturalism, Rationalism, Objectivism, Kant, Sartre

Criticisms

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morality is dependent on god

If God is omnibenevolent, why are there children being starved due to wars ad famines etc

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We can appeal to Gods other attributes, such as love - then we are judging Gods will by the standard of love. If so, morality is still independent of God

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each can be understood separately to one another

This is a misunderstanding: the claim is not that the basis of morality Is love, but that the basis of morality is Gods love

Morality is Dependent on God. The morally correct action is the one prescribed by God.

Existentialism - We are put on earth with no definite moral truths other than what we make for ourselves.

Rationalism - There are fixed, logical standards of morality

Kant - Being moral is doing the right thing for the right reason

Naturalism - What is moral is discoverable in nature

this is a metaphysical truth

this is not a conceptual truth

, to judge that what is and what good wills, we need independent concepts of what is good and of what god wills

god's will is the best source of knowledge about what is good

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