Castro, Juancho Gonzales, Ezekiel Learning Output 4 Give and Explain atleast two criticisms against the divine command theory. The Divine Command Theory doesn't do well when it comes to the Euthyphro dilemma. The dilemma presents a dichotomy of options in the relationship between morality and a god: God commands acts because they are good. Acts are good because they are commanded by God. The dilemma reveals that DCT morality is either subjective or arbitrary. If God commands acts because they are good then he merely recognizes right and wrong and is no longer the author of right and wrong. Morality then no longer depends on him the way Christians want. There's a standard of morality above God and he merely recognizes it and adheres to it. If things are good because God commands them then morality is subjective and no action is inherently good or bad. It becomes relative based on his commands, meaning one day it could be a sin (and inherently morally wrong) to eat shellfish, and the next day it could be totally fine. Or, slavery, if commanded by God, would be okay and moral. If Christians want to play by this book then they lose the ability to say that genocide, murder, or slavery are always wrong, because according to their Holy Book, it's not. It's a hard pill for them to swallow but if God had commanded the Holocaust then, in the DCT adherents mind, it would be automatically moral and therefore could not be criticized. Considering the apologetics for the genocides and killings in the OT, this isn't too much of a stretch either. Are there certain actions that can never be justified under any conditions? Yes, because the concept of "Mala in Se" exists. "Mala in Se" is a Latin word that literally translates to "wrong in, and of itself." These are those actions that are in themselves, evil. These are prohibited and such actions do not have the need for explicit laws to be criminalized because they are evil in every conceivable sense of the word and thus are unjustifiable under any conditions. To further elaborate, Mala in Se, covers the acts which are considered as intrinsically immoral. Although what we consider as moral or immoral may vary in relation with culture and school of thought a person may adhere to. Mala in Se are the acts that any society, in under any circumstance would unanimously deem immoral. In other words, these are acts and omissions that are wrong because they violate our society's moral, natural, or public principles. Under the Revised Penal Code in the Philippines, contains a list of these heinous crimes as well as the appropriate punishment, such as imprisonment, etc. Examples of Mala in Se are Murder, and Rape, among other crimes and these are inherently evil, regardless of the laws or the cultures that govern them.
