DCT: Good Or Evil?

On page 39 of MP, Barcalow states “It is right to obey God’s commands and wrong to disobey.” In the eyes of a Divine Command theorist, God’s commands, as scribed in the holy texts or sacred writings, are to be obeyed absolutely. The aforementioned quote from MP (Baracalow) demonstrates this belief. Believers of DCT are more inclined towards accepting whatever they have been taught as Divine Commands and allow it to dictate morality. Since none can be allowed to challenge sacred writing, which claims to be God’s command by itself, people submit to what they deem is a higher being.

The first version of DCT, on page 40 of MP, Barcalow, claims that “God’s command makes things morally wrong or right.” This means that any action is only deemed

immoral if God commands so. For example, the majority of us think that murder is wrong. According to this version of DCT, if God hadn’t commanded murder as being immoral, then murder wouldn’t be considered morally wrong. So, a follower of this version of DCT, doesn’t do whatever God forbids. Hence, this said person no longer has control over judging what is right or wrong for ourselves. This, I think, is an insult to a person’s metacognition.
The main problem for this version of DCT arises with an atheist who doesn’t believe in God and therefore has no obligation to do whatever the Divine Command deems as moral or immoral. In order to reconcile this problem, the debate our God’s existence has to be settled.

Another version of DCT says that God commands something as morally right or wrong, for God is omniscient. Meaning that God commands us thus, for God already knows if something is right or wrong. This version also claims that we, using reason, would’ve arrived at the same conclusion. According to this version, morality is independent of God. We can deem something moral or immoral, based on our reason or God’s commands, since God is all knowing. Hence, we can deem something morally wrong, for e.g. murder, even if God didn’t command it.
For the second version of DCT, problems arise when God’s command comes in conflict with what we ourselves moral or immoral. For instance, homosexuality by many is deemed immoral by DCT. However, for homosexuals and those that reason homosexuality as moral disagree with what DCT dictates. Also, not everyone believes in the same DCT. This leads to conflict when we have opposing commands from two different sources, whilst both claim to be Divine Commands. If each of them has differing accounts on morality over an issue, then we can no longer prove one Divine Command over the other, for they both claim to hold same authority over morality. Another problem with DCT is that it doesn’t cover all aspects of modern life, for example, euthanasia, genetic engineering or artificial intelligence.

These discrepancies and difficulties with DCT cannot be reconciled. The only way for any DCT to become right is if only if that DCT remains and is followed absolutely; but that would mean the death or rationality. Hence, DCT is an unreasonable ethical theory.