Starter questions
 Is there a connection between religion and morality?
 Is there a connection between belief in God and
morality?
 Is this the same thing?
Divine Command Theory
 God’s will alone decides what is right and wrong;
human reason has no authority; human experience has
no authority; God’s authority is absolute.
 All humans can do is accept God’s authority and
respond either rightly or wrongly.
 Sin is disobedience to the word of God.
 Punishment and the hope of reward are the reason
that it is ‘good’ to obey God’s commands.
Divine Command Theory
DCT is a meta-ethical theory.
Meta-ethics is a branch of analytic philosophy that
explores the status, foundations, and scope of moral
values, properties, and words. Whereas the fields of
applied ethics and normative theory focus on what is
moral, meta-ethics focuses on what morality itself
is.
Metaethics | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
DCT evidence
 The Old Testament and the Qur’an are full of
teachings that consist of God asserting his moral law,
e.g. 10 Commandments; expulsion from Garden of
Eden
 Scholar William of Ockham championed DCT in the
Middle Ages “God cannot be obligated to any act.
With Him a thing becomes right solely because He
wants it to”
 AG Grayling stated “Sin is disobedience to the
commands of God; virtue is obedience to them”
Example
Imagine that God is a general in the army and that
Christians are his soldiers. The soldiers wait on the
battlefield of life. They know that the general has the
strategic plan that will enable them to be victorious.
What should they do? Should they follow the orders,
however strange the commands might seem at the time?
The clear answer is that they should for their own good if
nothing else. They know that, by doing so, victory will
be achieved.
(Taken from ‘Understanding Religious Ethics’ – Richard Wright – pg 93)
DCT problems
 What problems can you see with Divine Command
Theory? In pairs list 3 problems.
Euthyphro Dilemma
The Divine Command Theory is the view on
morality that what is right is whatever God
commands.
Socrates’ question (Euthyphro dilemma):
Is it right because God’s commands it or does
God command it because it is right?