Divine Command Theory

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

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.” Peter Stark was the openly atheistic congressman in history. Barney Frank admitted to being an atheist after he retired from congress. 25 years after he admitted he was gay. There are many factors that help explain this data. But one of them is surely the pervasive assumption that atheists are at best nonmoral.

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

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.

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. We have seen that moral motivation and moral knowledge are not very good reasons to endorse this position, but it does have something to be said for it. You may think that you can’t get rules or laws without a rule-maker or lawgiver. Morality is a set of rules or laws that require a lawgiver. God is the only thing that is a good candidate for such a lawgiver (he is all-powerful, created the universe, etc.) If this is so, then there is good reason to think that without God there could be no morality.

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.

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

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) This is a very powerful point. How do you get morality from purely physical bundles of matter? This is a deep and interesting question, and there is no easy answer, but it is not just a problem for morality: Epistemic norms (justified beliefs) Social norms/norms of politeness It seems equally confusing about how all of these things arise from little bits of matter and energy bouncing around. How we get oughts at all out of purely physical stuff is a really big problem.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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. Suppose God is sitting around before he has delivered any commands. He considers the nature of murder, genocide, rape, etc. Since he has not commanded anything yet, none of these things are immoral yet. And God knows this because he is omniscient. As yet all of these things are morally neutral and God knows it. At some point he forbids these things making them immoral. But crucially, since there is no morality before his commands are issued, so what are his reasons for forbidding these things?

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.

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.

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. Is this a limitation on God’s power? This is an old question, but most philosophers and theologians think that it isn’t.

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.

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

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.