The book is designed to provide a textbook that gives insight defining the differences and differing perspectives to Christian Ethics. The book also provides a comprehensive analysis three of the distinct phases of western Christianity. The book is divided into five sections, the first section pertaining to the methodological issues in Christian ethics. The second through section four focuses on the issues in social ethics. Section five pertains to the personal status.…
In essence, God decides morality, the basis of right and wrong. If God says something is right then it is morally right; if God says something is wrong then it also is morally wrong. However, flaws in this theory have caused many people to deny it and believe in Saint Thomas Aquinas Theory of Natural Law. This theory is divided into three parts: the world has values and views built into its nature, describe not only how things are but also how they ought to be, and how do we determine what is tight and wrong. The two theories are opposite in terms of viewpoint but in today's world, but of them are rejected because of conflicting issues.…
The article written by Robert Merrithew Addams, A Modified Divine Command Theory of Ethical Wrongness, expresses a unique view of the Divine Command Theory in which Addams has modified to answer certain controversial issues. The main controversy being towards the theory’s implications of ethical wrongness and the different situations it can be applied. In Plato’s, Euthyphro, the controversy can be seen through the statement, “… nor the pious the same as the god-loved,” (70). This argument presents questions of what applies towards someone’s beliefs in God. Furthermore, the original theory, according to Addams, implies a connection between “wrong,” and “contrary towards God’s commands,” (39).…
In his attempt to understand why God doesn't intervene to prevent evil, B.C. Johnson uses common claims made by many theists to disprove the goodness of God. Building the article upon a hypothetical example of a baby being burned alive in an electrical house fire, Johnson bases his stance on God's goodness on whether or not God saves the baby. According to Johnson, God is not good if he does not intervene tragedies and is likened to a bystander who's fully capable of helping but doesn't. Whether or not the baby goes to heaven doesn't matter as long as the baby has to suffer in that house fire. God is compared to a physician or a firefighter that doesn't assist so that people wouldn't be dependent upon an outside power or to promote moral urgency.…
The Divine Command theory is explained as “a dependency thesis theory that maintains that morally right acts are simply those that God commands or wills for us to do” (265.) With Love Thy Neighbor being one of the Ten Commandments, if one believes in the Divine Command Theory, they must follow this commandment always. In my opinion, a believer who accepts Divine Command Theory would have no moral obligation to sponsor a child. The Bible states in Mark 12:13 “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is not another commandment greater than these.…
Evil and Omnipotence In Evil and Omnipotence, J.L. Mackie presents fallacious solutions that try solving the logical problem of evil. Fallacious solutions explicitly maintain all their propositions, but implicitly end up rejecting at least one of them. The fourth fallacious solution (S4), claims that moral evil is necessary in any world containing the overriding good of human freedom. In this paper, I will demonstrate: (I) S4; (II) Mackie’s objection of S4; (III) A primary benefit of Mackie’s argument; and (IV) Why Mackie’s criticism succeeds. (I) S4:…
Protagoras, a Greek thinker and teacher, while commenting about his affliction to human reasoning and logic, quipped, “Man is the measure of all things.” (Jowett, 1871, p. 17) Just as Protagoras held this philosophy, and the reliance of man to act as man, it is unlikely he could have ever known how Socrates, some many years later, would prove him right. This affirmation was best evidenced by the philosophical argument held between Socrates and Euthyphro regarding man’s moral obligations, and holiness.…
For this paper I will be discussing Socrates’s Euthyphro Dilemma. Socrates offers this argument, in the form of a dilemma, to defend the view that the following premises disprove the Divine Command Theory (DCT) when accepting either: (a) is an action morally right simply because God commands it, or (b) is God commanding these actions because he recognizes that they are right (Peterson Class Slides). If Socrates’s argument is sound, it would prove that DCT— the idea of being morally right is being commanded by God and being morally wrong is being forbidden by God— is false. This is significant because several philosophers accept DCT. The theory is a way of thinking about morality in a religious sense; but the Euthyphro argument has even caused…
With the divine command theory, it makes someone justify an extremely horrific act by claiming God authorized us to do so. This is explained by the divine perfection argument, which is against the divine command theory. If the divine command theory is true, then a morally perfect God could have created a flawless morality that required us to rape little children. But a morally perfect God could not have issued such commands, anyone who did would be morally imperfect. Therefore, the divine command theory is…
Where the beginning of Morality came from has been a huge debate among people for hundreds of years now. Morality can also be called the goodness in people or the desire to be good. Theists believe morality comes from God. Atheists believe that morality comes from our own conscience or reason. In this essay we are going to focus on proving that morality could not have come from God in view of the following reasons, 1: You can be good without God, 2: The Bible is not a clear guide for direction on morality, 3: There are many things that religious people do not agree with, and 4: The problem of evil.…
When Elvin Jellinek proposed the disease model of alcoholism in 1960, it was received as a welcome replacement to the moral model that had been held previously. This model posited that alcoholics could not control their drinking and required medical attention rather than incarceration (Jung, 2001, p. 41). Neil Levy, spoke against the disease model in his journal article published in Frontiers in Psychology in April 11th, 2013. His…
Harman presents the argument that we never have any evidence for or against any moral claim and that moral “facts” serve no purpose regarding the explanation of making observations unlike scientific facts do. In this essay, I will argue why I believe that Harman’s argument is ultimately successful, successful being that it is convincing of its conclusion. I will accomplish this by first paraphrasing Harman’s premises in an understandable manner. Next, I intend to provide a possible attack that could be used to show how Harman’s argument fails and alter my focus on to why that attack should not succeed as well as delivering a counter-argument to ensure my argument is not one-sided. Finally, I will provide a proper conclusion that summarizes…
Philosophy 2306 Final Paper In The Elements of Moral Philosophy, James and Stuart Rachels discuss the ideas of ethics that a novice should challenge. This book consists of thirteen chapters. First, the author begins with the minimum conception of morality; the following three chapters cover cultural relativism and the connection between morality and religion; the middle chapters, five to twelve, focus on essential ethical theories; and the last chapter describes the author’s perspective of what a satisfactory moral theory should be like.…
The Divine command theory is a meta - ethical theory which states that an action is obligatory if and only if, it is commanded by God. In this essay, I will examine whether any form of divine command theory is defensible. In defence, I shall begin by looking at the modified theory as proposed by Robert Adams. Secondly, I will attempt to assess objections from Plato, Austin and Wainwright; before proceeding to evaluate whether these objections are successful in demeaning this theory. Let us take the modified version of the divine command theory , as proposed by Robert Adams (1987); in defence of the original theory.…
These theories propose that, when an individual gets drunk, he/she will do what comes naturally without thinking twice due to judgment impairment and thus making drug users prone to breaking the laws. However, these theories differ on how they emphasize the level of crime and drug abuse and how they…