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Many people believe in God. What varies among believers is to what level God has control over this earth. That is the root of many differences between theological ethics. One common thread, though, is that what God says is right. That is the basic principle behind Divine Command Theory. This theory says that something is right if God commands it. Very straight forward. But nothing in philosophy is that straight forward (and I would not have it any other way). There are primarily three arguments against Divine Command Theory. One is based on the question of how you know that "it" is God? The other is that this theory requires theological knowledge in order to have ethical knowledge. This is counteracted by the idea that we all have an innate knowledge of nature, which leads you to natural theology. The last argument is the question of whether or not it is right because God commands it, or does God command it because it is right. The first one supports Divine Command Theory, but the second version in that statement would mean we could do away with God and still have ethics. |