Divine Command Theory: The Euthyphro Dilemma

Divine Command Theory is the belief that an action is morally good if and only if that action is commanded by God. This means that actions not directly commanded by God are wrong, such as murder, stealing, adultery, etc. The way this is worded is very similar to virtue theory, which states that an action is morally good if and only if the action is good for the person doing the action. Rather than basing the morality of a situation on whether it is just or pleasure-making for other people, it focuses on the person doing the action, and makes sure that the action is good for the person. However, the difference with Divine Command Theory is that the actions being done to better oneself are not created by the person, but command by God himself. …show more content…
This is a problem for a divine command theorist because it has a major contradictory in it. As stated before, the Divine Command Theory says that an action is only good if it is commanded by God. But, because of this one-sided argument posed by divine command theorists, this might not always be the case. On a grand scale, Divine Command Theory is very flawed, as per the Euthyphro Dilemma. One reason that divine command theorists are flawed might be because that it is not really plausible that every good virtue on Earth is good because God commanded it. This is because if every virtue was good because it was commanded by God, this world that we live in would be perfect. There would be no warfare, rape, stealing, and other crimes that poison the Earth. God himself cannot command every virtue, as some virtues are out of even his control. Because murder is a major problem in this world, and not matter what measures are taken against it, murder still runs rampant. If not murdering was good because God commanded it, then no one would murder (at least those that believe in him). However, because it is commanded by God because it is good, then that takes away from the power that God