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Examples Of The Euthyphro Dilemma

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Recommended: Divine command theory strengths and limitations

Michelle Blackburn
Dr. Simkulet
Introduction to Philosophy
19 February 2023
Euthyphro Dilemma
1
The Euthyphro Dilemma discusses an issue with the Divine Command Theory, questioning if something is morally good because God says so, or if God commands something because it is a morally good thing. This is a serious dilemma because there are problems with both points. If the first point was correct, then morality would not be a concrete idea. This would make it so if God ordered you to kill someone for His own amusement, it would be morally correct, despite most religious texts condemning murder. If the second point were correct, then morality would be above God and God would simply be a messenger of said morality. This would make it so that there …show more content…

In my eyes, morality is a mainly human-made concept. Religion and religious texts are man-made, thus making written moral codes man-made also. This goes without mentioning the amount of translating and retranslating that goes into the distribution of these religious texts. It is nearly impossible for our modern Bibles to tell us the exact word of God due to the amount of translation and adaptations made throughout history. Thus, there is no concrete definition of morality known to humans and the only possible way for God to communicate what is moral and what is not is through our intuition. Since there seem to be so many exceptions to the rules of morality, such as murder in self-defense, it would seem as though God would decide for himself whether or not something is moral. Additionally, there are so many instances in human history where things happen that seem undeniably evil, yet God allows it. Why would God allow such travesties like the Holocaust or Sandy Hook shooting to happen? The answer is unknown to humans. This makes me believe that in order to be a good divine ruler, God must look at these situations on a case by case basis and decide what action to take, if any. I lean less towards the second point simply because it creates a scenario where God is not the creator, which is the main idea surrounding God. With morality being above God as implied by the second point, there is a chance God does

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