Morality, Christianity and God.

I always find it interesting that Christians seem to think they have some type of monopoly on morality and ethics or that those that don’t accept the Christian God and his Ten Commandments can’t have a code of morality or ethics.

What these folks are overlooking is that “Divine Command Theory” is only one of several ethical theories and the only one that requires any God.


DIVINE COMMAND THEORY - Moral standards depend on God who is all-knowing. Any act that conforms to the law of God is right; an act that breaks God's law is wrong.

ETHICAL RELATIVISM - No principles are universally valid. All moral principles are valid relative to cultural tastes. The rules of the society serve as a standard.

UTILITARIANISM - Actions are judged right or wrong solely by their consequences. Right actions are those that produce the greatest balance of happiness over unhappiness. Each person's happiness is equally important.

DEONTOLOGY - Emphasis is on moral rules and duty. If it’s not OK for everyone to follow the rule, then it is not morally permissible. Emphasis is on autonomy, justice and kind acts. People treated as ends, never means.

VIRTUE ETHICS - Morals are internal. It seeks to produce good people who act well out of spontaneous goodness. It emphasizes living well and achieving excellence.


To make matters more interesting, the Euthyphro dilemma attacks the validity of “Divine Command Theory.”

The Euthyphro Dilemma is based upon one of Plato’s dialogues and asks the question, "Are morally good acts willed by God because they are morally good, or are they morally good because they are willed by God?"

If you agree with the first statement that good acts are willed by God because they are good, the link between morality and God becomes severed. Morality exists independent of God and God is as subservient to morality as the rest of us are.

Agreement with the second statement, that acts are morally good because they are willed by God, gives rise to the "emptiness problem;” the tautology that things are good merely because God has decided they are good and God, being omnipotent, could as easily will what we would otherwise consider immoral things. Thus morality is rendered a useless concept because it is arbitrary.

Both outcomes appear to undermine Divine Command Theory and, arguably, the existence of God.