Divine Command Theory

“No Matter who you think wrote that manual, many people feel that, in order for morality to really
be binding - for it to be something we all have to adhere to - it can only originate with God”

Divine Command Theory - What’s moral and immoral is commanded by the divine.

Every ethical system needs a foundation and with the Divine Command Theory it’s God.

Divine Command Theory addresses many of our biggest questions about right and wrong,
which is why it’s the ethical theory of choice for much of the world.

Plato vs Divine Command Theory

Socrates is preparing to defend himself against the charges that will ultimately lead to his death
among other things, he was accused of corrupting the youth of Athens and not having the right
kinds of belief about the gods.

Euthyphro is getting ready to bring murdrt charges against his very own father

Euthyphro believes prosecuting his father is right thing to do since the gods commanded him to
do it

Therefore socrates asks questions now more commonly known as the Euthyphro Problem

“Are right actions right because God commands them? Or Are right actions commanded by God
because they are right”

First Question

Accepting the first question means you're accepting that God’s command alone is simply what
makes something right.

If God determines the rightness and wrongness of everything, just by saying so, then the entire
concept of goodness and value becomes vacuous (empty)

God Commands what is good = God commands what he commands

 Second Question

Accepting the second question means that God isn’t omnipotent since he is binded by an
outside force of value that originated outside of him.

If the ethical rules of the universe come from some source other than God, then why can’t we
just go straight to that source, too, and figure out morality for ourselves, in the same way God
did.

This means that god and his teachings become superfluous (more than enough) little more than
moral footnotes, a shortcut to understanding the original source

Ending Statements

Either God is bound by a standard outside of himself, or God’s goodness doesn’t really mean
anything.

Other problems
1. How do we know what god commands?
a. Do we get to decide?
i. If so then would the 10 commandments be more like recommendations?

Connecting it to our Theo Lessons

Rules should help us find happiness

divine command theory presents morality as a bunch of laws/restrictions when it's more like
pursuing happiness

Reddit
Ethics aren't grounded in God's commands, but in God's character.

But morality is not outside of God, as the Euthyphro Dilemma states, because it is still grounded
in His character