Euthyphro Argument Analysis

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Religions are found all around the world and are a central building block for the way people choose to live their lives. In the United States alone, 89% of the adult population admits to believing in some form of God or universal spirit (Lipka). This means there is a good chance that those who believe in God would panic and become defensive when they heard Russ Shafer-Landau use of the Euthyphro argument to show that the Divine Command Theory is false. However, they shouldn’t panic so quickly as Russ Shafer-Landau is only uses the argument as part of his paper to prove his main point that ethics can be objective, which means they exists beyond personal bias and interpretations. This does not mean that God doesn’t exists but only that there …show more content…

The purpose of the Euthyphro argument is to prove the Divine Command Theory false which states that an act is right (or wrong) if, and only if, God commands (or forbids). This opens up the possibility that the rightness and wrongness of actions does not solely rely on if God commands it or not. By proving that God does not have to determine if all actions are right or wrong it allows Russ Shafer-Landau to argue his idea that ethics can be objective. However, before all of these conclusions can be made there are premises in the Euthyphro argument which need to be addressed, the argument is stated …show more content…

Giving up on the idea that God created all right and wrong, theists can come to terms with objective morality while still believing in an all-powerful God. Since the Divine Command Theory states that an act is right (or wrong) if, and only if, God commands (or forbids) it is easy to disagree with this theory because it demands to much. To think that an act is right or wrong if and only if god commands or forbids it is much too specific with the information that we think we know about god. There are many different religions in the world and although nearly all of them share common rules/values as it comes to right and wrong subjective views are almost always included in those rules. When referencing only the Christian faith, The Bible is basically the rule book in which the Divine Command Theory is based from yet there are many different Christian religions that are based off The Bible that pick and choose what they like from it to support their beliefs. With this going on a theist wouldn’t be able to confirm or deny that an act is right or wrong only if God commands or forbids it because they don’t actually know what god thinks are moral and which are not. There is room for Russ Shafer-Landau’s objective ethics and theists belief in God to coexist when looking at

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