Divine Command Theory

1. Divine Command Theory

2. For Next Time From Mill’s Utilitarianismread: Chapter 1 and Chapter 2-1through 2-10 (pages 49-59) Augi’s office hours cancelled today.

3. Religion and Morality • 50% of Americans would not vote for a qualified atheist for President • 47% would disapprove of their child marrying an atheist • 7 states ban atheists from holding public office (Arkansas, Maryland, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, Tenessee, Texas) • There are currently no openly atheistic members of Congress. (Compare: 15 Mormons, 2 Muslims, 3 Buddhists. 10 members refused to disclose their religion. One Congresswoman is “unaffiliated”) • 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. describe themselves as atheistic, agnostic or “nothing in particular.”

4. Religion and Morality “If God is dead, then everything is permitted.” -Fyodor Dostoyevsky

5. Religion and Morality Three Claims about the Role of Religion • Moral Motivation: Religious belief is required in order for us to do our moral duty. • Moral Knowledge: Religious teachings are the only (or the best) way in which we come to know what is right and wrong. • Divine Command Theory: An act is morally required just because it is commanded by God, and immoral just because God forbids it.

6. Divine Command Theory Divine Command Theory: An act is morally required just because it is commanded by God, and immoral just because God forbids it.

7. Divine Command Theory What if God doesn’t exist or doesn’t care about how we act? • Atheists believe that God does not exist. • Deists believe that God exists, and created the universe, but does not involve himself in its governing.

8. Divine Command Theory Our question: Does God create morality? Can there be morality if God does not exist?

9. Divine Command Theory In a godless universe: “Where would the moral norms come from? If we are wholly material beings, governed by physical laws, then there are many ways that we will behave. But there seems to be no way that we ought to behave. If we are just very complex bundles of matter, without any externally imposed aims or purposes to live up to, then it is difficult to see how there can be moral duties at all. To get moral requirements into the picture, we must have someone with the authority to impose those duties on. Only God could possibly qualify.” (13)

10. Socrates’ Question Does God command us to do actions because they are morally right, or are actions morally right because God commands them?

11. Dilemmas A dilemma is an objection of the following form: • Either A or B must be true. • If A is true, then view X is false. • If B is true, then view X is false. • Therefore, view X is false. The two options are called the horns of the dilemma.

12. The Euthyphro Dilemma Plato’s question poses a dilemma for the divine command theorist: Horn #1: God commands us to act a certain way because it is moral. Horn #2: Acting a certain way is moral because God commands it.

13. Horn #1: DCT is False Suppose God commands us to refrain from killing each other because it is moral: • Then God’s command didn’t make it moral it was already moral to avoid murder, and God just told us to do the right thing. • Since DCT claims that it is God’s commands that make things moral, they cannot take this horn.

14. For Next Time Continue reading Utilitarianism. Finish Ch. 2.

15. Horn #2 Arbitrariness Suppose God’s commands are what make murder immoral (i.e. DCT is true): • Either God had morally sufficient reasons to make murder immoral, or he didn’t. • If God had morally sufficient reasons to make murder immoral, then it seems those are the reasons it is immoral, not God’s commands. • If God has no morally sufficient reasons to make murder immoral, then its immorality is entirely arbitrary. He could have just as easily chose to make it morally acceptable to commit murder. • But God is perfect and does not deliver arbitrary commands. • Therefore DCT is false.

16. Horn #2 Arbitrariness Another way to get at the problem: • If God has no reasons for his commands, then his commands are arbitrary. • This means he could have, just as easily made murder morally permissible. • But murder could not have been morally permissible. • Therefore, the impermissibility of murder does not depend on God’s commands.

17. Necessary Truths A necessary truth is something that would have been true no matter what the world was like. • 2+2=4 • All bachelors are unmarried • Red things are red. • Something cannot be a book and not a book simultaneously.

18. Necessary Truths The most general moral truths seem to have this same feature: • Causing suffering to people without sufficient cause is wrong. • Preventing the happiness of others without sufficient cause is wrong. • Harming someone without sufficient cause is wrong.

19. The Euthyphro Argument The Euthyphro Argument: • Either God has reasons that support his commands or He lacks reasons for His commands. • Horn 1: If God has reasons that support His commands, then these reasons, rather than the commands themselves, are what make actions right or wrong. • So if God has reasons for His commands, then DCT is false. • Horn 2 (DCT): If God lacks reasons for His commands, then God’s commands are arbitrary. • If God commands are arbitrary then things like rape, genocide and murder could have been morally permissible. • Rape, genocide and murder could not have been morally permissible. • Therefore, God’s commands cannot be arbitrary, and DCT is false. • Therefore, regardless of which horn we take, DCT is false.

20. What the Argument Doesn’t Show • It doesn’t show that God doesn’t exist • It doesn’t show that we shouldn’t follow God’s commands (provided we know what they are). • It doesn’t show that religion is a bad moral motivator • It doesn’t show that religion is a bad source of moral knowledge

21. What it Does Show What the argument does show is that even if you believe in God, you should reject divine command theory. God does not create morality.