Divine command theory

• divine command theory is a religious ethics that believes an actions status as morally good or bad is commanded by God 
• Is is also known as theological voluntsrismism 
• It is a meta-ethical theory meaning the theory attempts to tell us the nature of morality 
• 'goodness' is simply what God commands 

• Divine command theorists believe what is moral is determined by what Gods commands 
• William Frankena stated that "the standard of right and wrong is the will of God"
• All versions of the theory claim that morality and humans obligations, ultimately depend on God 
• Rev John Robinson states "they come down direct from heaven, and are eternally valid"
• Divine command theory can be found in sacred texts, for exa within the Ten Commandments "you shall not murder"

• Right and wrong (good and bad) are objective truths meaning they are not influenced by humanities personal feelings on right and wrong 
• for example, it doesn't matter what humans think of stealing God has commanded it as bad 
• William Ockham stated in the Middle Ages "with him a thing becomes right solely because he wants it so"

• The only way to be moral is to follow God's commands 
• some followers of Christianity, Judaism and Islam believe if you don't follow God's divine commands you will face God"s wrath 
• for example, Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden 

• Supporters of the theory justify it by stating that it is a natural consequence of God's omnipotence
• an omnipotent god must have power over everything 
• is he didn't have power over morality he would be omnipotent 

• He created the modified divine command theory 
• He states how the normal divine command theory could allow a seemingly immoral act to become good and humanities duty would be to follow it 
• for example, god could command stealing as good
• Adam solves this by stating it is unthinkable for God to do this because of his omnibenevolence 
• "Any action is ethically wrong if and only if it is contrary to the commands of a loving god"

The Euthyphro dilemma

• Proposed by Plato 
• if god commanded murder was moral, divine command theory would allow god to command cruelty 

The Arbitrareness problem 

• What is good and bad depends on nothing more than God's whim, this is not an adequate foundation of universal morality 

The pluralism objection 

• it is impossible to know which gods commands should be followed, especially when some laws contradict in different religions 
• for example, divorce is acceptable in Islam but isn't in Christianity