_ __          =[ divine command theory ]=            __ _

Divine command theory has to do with the dichotomy between whether God commands something because its good, or its good because He commands it. Divine command would tend toward the latter. but its a false dichotomy. Something is good because God commands it and because it is good. When presented with the artificial delimma, simply assert that it is a false dichotomy and that both are true. It is good, and God commands it. We should never concede that any external standard can evaluate God's morality. God is the standard for all morality and the concept of morality as we seek it as creatures in the world He made. Because God is so unique its difficult to draw analogies on this one. I think its best to begin by affirming that God, even in isolation, has distinct attributes. If God has these distinct attributes, He is free to then display them by creating a universe and observers of His attributes.

Just because God is the source of the attributes, and we are the created observers, does not mean that He ceases to be the standard for those attributes which He is displaying. Some might object by saying that God's attributes are arbitrary, but again, they wouldn't have any standard of non-arbitrariness to appeal to. We could simply ask "arbitrary in relation to what?" since there is no standard external to God which God must conform to. Though there is a standard which we must conform to as His created observers.

The unbeliever's tactic is either to raise man's thoughts to be the standard by which things are decided (this is clearly arbitrary since mankind seldom agrees on anything), the other tactic is to lower God to be like one of us, and accuse Him of being subjective like us.

Ryan Jankowski: December 267h, 2004, 12:27pm