Divine Command Theory

• Suppose a believer told you that God had instructed them to give £10 to charity – would you be surprised?

• Why? Why not?

Now suppose

• … this mother said that God told her to send her son on a suicide bombing mission

• What would you say?

You have encountered …..

The DIVINE COMMAND THEORY

The Euthyphro dilemma

According to Plato, a man called Euthyphro was asked:

Does God call good acts “good” because they are morally good?

or are the acts morally good because God told us to do them?

“Hmmmm” said Euthrypho

That’s a poser. Because, you see If God approves acts BECAUSE

they are morally good, then they must have been good BEFORE GOD SAID THEY WERE!!!!

MORALITY IS THEREFORE INDEPENDENT OF GOD. AAAAAAGH!

And on the other hand …. If acts are good by virtue of the

fact that God wills them … then God could ask us to do ANYTHING

and it would be a good act. Er, yes, that WOULD mean rape,

murder, etc would be good if God ordered it

DOUBLE AAAAAAAGH!!!

Furthermore ….

morality would therefore be based on mere whims of God.

God’s commands aren’t informed nor sanctioned by morality.

How could such morally arbitrary commands be the foundation of morality?

And another thing!

It means that statements like “God is good” and “God’s commands are good” are meaningless: “God acts in accordance with his commands” and “God’s commands are in accordance with his commands”.

But that one does my head in!

But hang on a minute …

Divine command theory is by no means the only ethical theory in the Christian tradition. There’s Situation Ethics and Natural Law

so the believer need not panic even if these objections are correct. There are other morality theories to choose from!

And furthermore

If God created all things, then He must have created our moral obligations too!

If God is sovereign, He must have the authority to tell us how we are to live our lives. Why should we expect to understand it all?

If God exists then all morality necessarily flows from Him. Moral lanuage describes God. It does not define Him.

But then again ……

Some people say that Divine Command theory provides a good let out clause for God when He asks fathers to sacrifice their children to Him, or to destroy towns and kill all the inhabitants. He’s God, right, so it must be OK, OK?Come to think about it, it provides a good let out clause for criminals too..

UltimatelyUltimately

Believers might argue that Believers might argue that Divine Command operates Divine Command operates in at least two waysin at least two ways

The general – “Love your The general – “Love your neighbour as yourself.” “ neighbour as yourself.” “ You shall not commit You shall not commit murder”murder”

Such commands can apply Such commands can apply to everyone everywhereto everyone everywhere

And the particular which apply And the particular which apply only to a few people and at only to a few people and at particular times.particular times.

““Go, sell all that you have and Go, sell all that you have and give it to the poor. Then come give it to the poor. Then come and be my disciple. “and be my disciple. “

God has the RIGHT to do it – God has the RIGHT to do it – and who are we to judge!and who are we to judge!