Divine Command Theory Weaknesses Starter Missing Words Round

Divine Command Theory Weaknesses • Starter – Missing Words Round • LO s • To explore some of the key criticisms of the divine command theory, including the Euthyphro dilemma • To evaluate divine command theory in light of such criticisms

Missing Words Starter _____ of hippo and John ____ argued for predestination Descartes argued that God can do anything, including ______ was willing to _____ to show faith in God _____ said that you cannot have a ______ without a ______ • God cannot be understood through Aquinas’ _____ argued Karl Barth • Luther suggested we can be moral through per sola ____ and per sola _____ • Barth ‘God is not just ____ but ____. ’ • •

Weaknesses • Euthyphros Dilemma – Plato, Ockham, Adams, Geach (read script) • Christianity about love not like the ‘legalistic Torah’. • Slaves of Christ – obedience not a virtue • Obedience and Freedom – Incompatible? • God’s will cannot be known…Aquinas vs Barth • Supervenience – moving from non-ethical to ethical eg man in image of God=abortion is wrong

Divine Command Theory Weaknesses – Lesson 2 • Summarise DCT weaknesses in word cloud format, using notes from last lesson. • To further explore the philosophical weaknesses of divine command theory • (the bigger the word, the more significant it is) • To discuss and evaluate this, speed dating style

DCT Weaknesses Speed Dating • In pairs, you must make sense of and summarise your slide…you are then going to go and meet other ‘couples’ who are going to share their summary with you (notes to be taken from first person conversation not from copying).

Weaknesses • Leibniz – paradox – “If God wills a person to do the opposite of what God has already willed, this would be morally good. ” Absurd. • Why does DCT mean God is not free? • God not free – bound to reward and punish if subjects are obedient

Divine Command Theory: Ayer • For some philosophers, morality can’t depend on authority alone. • A. J. Ayer said: • ‘No morality can be founded on authority, even if the authority were divine. ’ • Commanding something doesn’t make it morally right.

Divine Command Theory: Leibniz What is more, if God chose his commands arbitrarily, then why worship Him? • The philosopher Gottfried Leibniz wrote: • ‘…in saying that things are not good by any rule of goodness, but merely by the will of God, it seems to me that one destroys, without realising it, all the love of God and all his glory. For why praise him for what he has done if he would be equally praiseworthy in doing exactly the contrary? ’ • (Leibniz, ’Discourse on Metaphysics, 1686) •

Divine Command Theory: God Beyond Human Comprehension • Perhaps God is so unlike human beings that He is beyond comprehension. • While it seems impossible to imagine that His commands make things good or bad, nevertheless, since he created morality this is within His power.

Divine Command Theory: J. L. Mackie • J. L. Mackie maintains that moral truths exist independently but are the product of the creative will of God, who has made human beings for which these rules are right. • Just as human beings were created by God gut are now free and separate from God, moral laws were also part of the creation of God. They are now separate from Him.

Divine Command Theory: J. L. Mackie • God might require human beings to follow the moral rules, but human beings might not be able to infer directly what these rules are. • Human beings may then infer from God’s commands that they are worth following.

Divine Command Theory: James Rachels • James Rachels uses an example to illustrate another possibility. • Suppose that a leader commands a follower to do something. • The follower performs the action, not because he is ordered to do so, but because he thinks that the action is right in itself.

Divine Command Theory: James Rachels • In this situation the rightness of the moral action isn’t conferred because it is commanded by God. • The rightness of the action comes from the fact that it is right in itself. • (James Rachels ‘God and Human Attitudes’ 1971)

Divine Command Theory: Alisdair Mac. Intyre • Alisdair Mac. Intyre concludes that there must be a secular reason for being moral, which religion sheds light on. • (Alisdair Mac. Intyre A Short History of Ethics 1966)

Letter to Abraham • “So your thinking of sacrificing your son because God told you too…” • Write this letter based on what you have learnt about these weaknesses.

Divine Command Theory • Further Reading: • Oliphant J. OCR Religious Ethics for AS and A 2 Chapter 6 (pages 79 and 80). • Vardy P. Puzzle of Ethics Chapter 2 (pages 7 -11). • Flannagan M. ‘In Defence of Divine Commands’ dialogue Issue 37 November 2011