God as a 'good' God: Euthyphro Dilemma

?
  • Created by: Luna
  • Created on: 13-01-13 16:51

The Euthyphro Dilemma

Developed by Plato, and aims to challenge the presentation of 'goodness' in the Bible

Two questions are considered:

1) Is an action 'good' because God commands it?  :  

This means that actions, e.g 'loving thy neighbour'/ 'honouring thy mother and father' are only good because God has said they are, they are not good in themselves

OR

2) Does God command actions which are already good?

This means that good and bad already exists aside from God, and He must command what is right and wrong to humanity using this

If we accept that:

1) An action is good because God commands it:

It means that God could, hypothetically, command that anything is good, i.e 'murder is good'.

By this logic, murder would become pure and an act of good will, and this seems illogical

It also deems moral codes, like Jesus', meaningless and, by extension, means…

Comments

No comments have yet been made