Religious Studies
God and Morality: why the Euthyphro
dilemma matters
Religious Studies
An overheard conversation…
Rick: We’re sending little Sid to Saint Michael’s. The local
comp’s ok but you need a church school if he’s going to know
the difference between right and wrong.
Nick: But you’re not religious!
Rick: Yeah, sure I don’t believe any of that funny stuff but
you don’t need that in order to teach right and wrong.
Nick: So if the ‘morals’ don’t need God, why bother with a
church school? You’re being a hypocrite!
Is Rick being inconsistent? Are religion and morality linked?
If so how?
Religious Studies
The Euthyphro dilemma (1)
This comes from a dialogue written by Plato. In it
Socrates ties young Euthyphro in knots with this
tricky question
Is ‘X’ good because God commands it
OR
Does God command ‘X’ because it is good?
Can you work out what problems there might
be with each option?
Religious Studies
The Euthyphro dilemma (2)
• If things are good because God commands
them; his commands could be arbitrary. For
example, murder would be good if God said so.
• If goodness is independent of God then God is
hampered and must refer to a standard of
goodness (and hence he isn’t needed to
determine what goodness is).
Religious Studies
Divine Command ethics
• The idea that whatever God commands is objectively
good is called the Divine Command Theory or Divine
Command Ethics. The Old Testament, with its laws
such as the Ten Commandments, are a prime example
of a Divine Command system.
• Several key Christian thinkers have been Divine
Command ethicists such as William of Ockham, William
Paley and John Calvin.
• Islamic ethics, which draws its main sources from the
Qur’an and the hadith, can also be described as a
Divine Command Ethic.
What arguments can you think of to support this idea?
Religious Studies
Defending Divine Command
• The Bible gives examples of immoral acts being made
right by God’s commands (for example Abraham being
commanded to sacrifice Isaac).
• Conforming to the will of God is seen as the most
important aspect of spirituality.
• Since God created us, we must live in accordance to
his will. Our maker knows best!
Can you think of counter-arguments to the above points?
Religious Studies
Weaknesses in Divine Command
• Divine command theories give outcomes that are
against our intuition. If God had commanded murder
and rape, would these have been good?
• Believers may disagree on what God’s command is, for
example Churches differ over issues such as
homosexuality and abortion
• A response to this might be to suggest that God could
not command such a thing as he is good.
• Kai Nielson argues that it would be morally wrong to
blindly obey Divine Commands. It diminishes our
humanity.
So if it is difficult to say that God’s commands make
things good then…
Religious Studies
A problem with objective morality (1)
If we want to argue that morality can exist
independently of God we have a problem. The example
below is taken from Stephen Law’s Philosophy Files.
• Suppose you are visited by Martians, Flib and Flob. You
witness a mugger snatching a purse. You say that the
action is wrong but your visitors suggest that they
don’t know what you mean...
• Flob says: our senses are like yours. We see the man
take the purse, we see the woman crying, but we
cannot see the wrongness. Where is this ‘wrongness’?
Religious Studies
A problem with objective morality (2)
• Flib and Flob have identified the fact value
problem. You cannot get from an ‘is’ to an
‘ought’. The facts of a case do not logically
show us the values (the rights and wrongs)
• More later at A2 when we do Meta Ethics
• So if God doesn’t exist and we cannot find
absolute morality anywhere else we are left
with a problem.
Religious Studies
Everything is permitted?
In ‘The Brothers Karamazov’, dim witted servant Smerdyakov
kills the brothers’ father. He blames Ivan for persuading him
that God does not exist.
Ivan: Did you kill him alone?
Smerdyakov: Only with you sir. I killed him with your help
(Ivan seems bemused)
Smerdyakov: Everything, you said is permitted...this you did
teach me, sir, for you talked to me a lot about such things:
for if there’s no everlasting God, there’s no such thing as
virtue and there’s no need of it at all. Yes sir, you were right
about that.
Would the absence of God make all things permissible?