Euthyphro Analysis

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In the reading and in lecture, it was established that Euthyphro has a dilemma with two very different theses. The first thesis is that Things are good because God loves them. What does this mean? I believe what the thesis is hinting at is that no one but God can define what is good or bad. Societal norms shape what we see as good, and what we see as bad. Perhaps God is the almighty author of the society. If He deems something to be good, then everyone accepts it. We cannot use our own judgment to determine one’s “goodness”. But in accordance with the theory, we cannot even control how we judge things. God has given us a predetermined outlook on life, and how we should view certain things. This kind of relates to what we talked about last week in lecture. If how we view things is predetermined, and we are not given the opportunity to make judgments on what is right or wrong, then our essence precedes our existence. In other words, we are not given the chance to form our own opinions, but rather accept what God has determined for us in life because he is almighty. The second thesis is much …show more content…

There is no reason as to why God deems a particular thing to be good. How do we really know that it is good? Do we have that must trust in Him? Perhaps he is testing us to see if we will challenge some of the things he calls “good”. An example we used in lecture was murder or a playground bully. If God were to deem these things “good”, would we look at them in the same manner? How could we distinguish between what is good without God’s judgment? There really is no answer. As for the second thesis, the issue would be that society would be judging what is good or bad. Why should we determine these things when God is so almighty and can determine these things for us? There is no definite answer as to what is right and what is wrong, but perhaps time will give us a more clear

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