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 ID: 711485
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Slide1
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 criticismsSlide2
Missing Words Starter
_____ of hippo and John ____ argued for predestinationDescartes 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 ____.’Slide3
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 wrongSlide4
Divine Command Theory Weaknesses – Lesson 2
Summarise DCT weaknesses in word cloud format, using notes from last lesson.
(the bigger the word, the more significant it is)
To further explore the philosophical weaknesses of divine command theory
To discuss and evaluate this, speed dating styleSlide5
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).Slide6
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 obedientSlide7
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.Slide8
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)Slide9
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.Slide10
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.Slide11
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.Slide12
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.Slide13
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) Slide14
Divine Command Theory:Alisdair MacIntyre
Alisdair MacIntyre concludes that there must be a secular reason for being moral, which religion sheds light on.
(Alisdair MacIntyre
A Short History of Ethics
1966)Slide15
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.Slide16
Divine Command Theory
Further Reading:Oliphant J. OCR Religious Ethics for AS and A2
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