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Major strenghts of divine command theory
Major strenghts of divine command theory
Major strenghts of divine command theory
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The Theory of Natural Law, defined in three aspects, there being a natural order in the world, everything having a purpose and how things are and how things ought to be. This theory also states that humans can distinguish between what is right or wrong through human reason/moral knowledge. On the other hand, the Divine Command Theory is a view of morality and believes that what’s right or wrong is set by God’s moral commands. God’s commands tell us what is morally obligatory, permitted and wrong.
The Natural Law stated that humans have a moral knowledge/reason that makes us able to decide what’s right. This has caused various debates on whether people did the right because it was the right thing to do or whether they did it because that’s
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For instance, not all of the Ten Commandants go along with the time we are living in. One of the Ten Commandants says we should not take the name of the Lord in vain and nowadays it’s something we do everyday. In addition, religious followers may decide to act in a harmful or negative way in society and defend themselves by saying that God had commanded them to do it; which may lead to extreme religions, where its followers may take every word of the book to heart and try to implement those views on their society. On another note, our society can have this as our moral system because of different religions and of atheist because, since they believe in other values. With the Divine Command it makes us question on whether who came first, God or right. When comparing the Divine Command with the Minimum Conception, it can be deduced that both are very differing from each other. One of the reasons being that with the Divine Command God chose for us what it’s right or wrong and if it became a moral system, atheists will feel out of place because they have a different set of believe just like other religions. In conclusion, while both the Natural Law Theory and the Divine Command Theory have aspects that I don’t agree on, both brought interesting ways to look at the world and the
When presented with a statement “There is a difference between what we have the right to do and what is the right thing to do,” it is a variance of what is legally beholden, and the morality of adhering to ethics by taking the correct path. What we have the right to do is interpreted by what is legally authorized by federal, state, or local government laws. The right thing to do is guided by personal conscience that tells the individual the correct thing to do (Mintz & Morris, 2014). It becomes a personal choice.
By applying Divine Command Theory to the statement “If God does not exist, then everything is permitted,” we can establish that DCT is a theory that could follow the statement. As stated above, Divine Command Theory puts morality in the word of God. In the simplest sense, God’s commands make things right or wrong. By denying the consequent to the claims above, we can form a conclusion that shows “everything is permitted”:
Most can agree that in, most circumstances, these actions are evil, so it can be concluded that there are certain things that a person simply ought not to do. This is the foundation of C.S. Lewis’ Moral Law argument for the existence of God. Lewis argues that every person has a sense of right and wrong moral behavior, and this sense presses upon us. This is what he calls the Law of Human nature, or Moral Law. However, unlike other laws like gravity, this law can be disobeyed. In fact, despite the fact that all people are aware of this law, they constantly disobey
For example Christians follow the Bible, Jew read the Quran and American citizens follow obey the United States Constitutions and laws. The definition of natural law is principles originated from nature that bind human societies together in the absence of additional positive laws (“Dictionary Natural Law,” n.d.). According to Brecher, Devenney & Winter (2010), the United States Constitution prevents the use of torturing criminals and suspected terrorist.
"The laws of nature and of nature 's God" are the beginning point of the political theory of founding America. The political theory explains the Founding Fathers ' decision to declare America 's independence from England. But they had to think; Is the law of God supreme or is it subject to the laws of the people? The Founding Fathers, in the end, agreed to treat
The Divine Command Theory is an ethical theory that basically proposes that God is the sole distinguisher between what is right and what is wrong. The textbook describes that under this theory, God commands what is moral and forbids what is immoral. Critics of this theory state that if God is the sole decision maker of morality, immoral actions could be acceptable if He willed it, and thus, God’s authority would be subjective and arbitrary. However, proponents contend that God would not allow immoral actions because he is omnipotent and all good. To follow the Divine Command Theory, one must believe and trust that it is in God’s nature to do good, and He will not act against his nature. By believing in this, one would dispute the critics’ argument by proving that God his not making
C.S. Lewis begins his book, “Mere Christianity”, by introducing the Law of Right and Wrong or the Laws of Nature. This, however, arises a question. What is the Law of Nature? The Law of Nature is the known difference between right and wrong. That is, mans distinction between what is right and what is wrong. “This law was called the Law of Nature because people thought that everyone knew it and did not need to be taught it”(18). Lewis relates the law to how we treat others. We treat others the way we want to be treated and if they treat us poorly in return we become agitated and annoyed with them. He states that we become a society of excuses when something goes wrong. He goes on to say that we want to behave in a certain way when in reality we do the opposite of what is right or what is wrong. We are humans and humans have primal instincts. We are all capable of using our instincts to do right or wrong. Lewis uses an example of a drowning man to prove this point. When one sees a man in trouble two desires or instincts kick into play, to save the man or ignore him because the situation at hand could endanger you. However, there in another impulse that says help the man. With this comes a conflict of instincts. Do you run and forget about it or do you jump in and help. Most people will help even if the situation is going to endanger their life. This is just one way of seeing moral law. The right in a situation will mostly always prevail over the wrong. “Men ought to be unselfish, ought to be fair. Not that men are selfish, nor that they like being unselfish, but they ought to be”(30). We are creatures of habit and logic. Lewis believes that the moral law is not taught to us rather known by us instinctively. He also believes that the law is real. The law is our behaviors in life via good or bad. Lewis states, “there is something above and beyond the ordinary facts of men’s behavior”(30). This opens Lewis to believe that the natural law is both alive and active in mans life today. Lewis goes on to say that the law must be something above mans behavior. He begins to relate this to the creation of the world.
To answer this question, we must consider what the right thing to do was. Moral reasoning poses two questions: What is the right thing to do? and What are the virtues of traits of a person who lives life well.
Natural law theory is the moral theory that states that all human being action needs to be in accordance with the natural law. For example, I do not harm any human being because it is not my right to take someone’s life only God has this right. Another example, when I drive near a school zone, I make sure to drive at a low speed because I do not want to run over any children. I use the doctrine of double effect sometimes when I have to choose between two issues. The doctrine of double effect states that if an action has two effects, one good and one bad, one should only do it if they only intend the good effect, the good effect outweighs the bad effect and is just as likely to occur and only if there is no way to get...
The Divine Command theory of ethics is a theory that states that an act is right or wrong and good or bad based on whether or not God commands or prohibits us from doing it. This means that the only thing that makes an action morally wrong is because God says it is. There are two sides to this theory; the restricted and the unrestricted. The restricted theory basically says that an action is obligatory if and only if it is good and God commanded it; the unrestricted theory states that an act is only obligatory if it is commanded by God, it is not obligatory if it is prohibited by God and it is optional if and only if God has not commanded nor prohibited it.
the way in which we come to find out what actions are right and which
What makes actions right? For some philosophers it is their consequences, like the pleasure or happiness that they produce. However for a deontologist like Immanuel Kant, rightness is the action itself and the obligation to perform it. His ethics is a theory of how a person should act, the actual action and morality of the action. It entails that as long as a person acts in a moral way then the consequences of the actions do not matter. “For Kant, doing the right thing is not a matter of one’s character or disposition or circumstance – all of which are or might be beyond one’s control. Instead, it is the matter of duty, acting out of respect for the moral law.” (Stangroom, J. & Garvey, J. 2005, p.79) Moral Laws are a system of guidelines for controlling human behaviour; like society laws. The Ten Commandments set by Moses are moral laws with the commands of a divine being, moral laws can be a set of universal rules that everyone should abide by. Kant argues that: “The moral law cannot be hypothetical in nature, cannot be of the form, ‘if you want such and such, do so...
In order to understand divine command theory we must first understand the nature of God and Morality. So we will start by taking a look at what makes an action moral. Once we understand what makes an action moral, we can then try to understand the author's’ viewpoint on the divine command theory of ethics. Understanding the viewpoint will allow us to dissect the author’s viewpoints and come up with counter-arguments that the author must then contend with.
"The theory of natural law is the view that moral values are fixed features of the universe which all humanity can discover through reason."(Fiesner) The Golden rule is an example of natural law. When you do onto others as you would want done onto you, you follow natural law. Equality provides for natural laws to thrive. Mother Teresa always strove for the equality of all people, but many would say that she felt superior to others. It is stated that the greatest flaw in the Mother Teresa's teachings "is the belief that as long as a sister obeys [Mother Teresa] she is doing God's will."(Adams) This is inherently a downfall, but it is only natural for the person who creates something to want to control it. "There was brazen hypocrisy in Tere...
The universal law formula of the categorical imperative ("the CI") is an unconditional moral law stating that one should “act only on that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.” A maxim is the motivating principle or reason for one’s actions. A moral act is an act by which its maxim can become universal law that would apply to all rational creatures. As a universal law, all rational creatures must act according to this maxim. The CI requires one to imagine a world where the maxim one wishes to act by becomes a universal law, in which all people must act according to this maxim. If one wills this maxim to become universal law that all rational creatures must follow, but there is a contradiction in conception or will, than this maxim cannot become universal law, and thus, the act is not morally permissible. A contradiction in conception occurs when by willing one’s maxim to become universal law, one is imagining a logically impossible world, for there is a contradiction in the very idea of every rational creature acting on this maxim. In contrast, a contradiction in will does not yield a logically impossible world, but there is a contradiction in willing what it is one proposes to do and in wanting the maxim to become universal law.