If God commanded you to sacrifice your child, would you? The answer is simple: God wouldn’t command that. And if you still want to consider the scenario as a per impossibile claim, you can do that with any moral system, not just divine command theories of ethics.
divine command ethics
Could God command something morally heinous?
This article is excerpted from my 2016 book An Atheist and a Christian Walk into a Bar (Prometheus), coauthored with Justin Schieber. Support the authors and consider buying a copy! You won’t be disappointed. Well, okay, you might be disappointed — life gives no guarantees — but I’m betting you won’t be. Anyway, without further ado, let’s […]
Is divine command theory a danger in the hands of the mentally ill?
Last year, Christian radio host Justin Brierley published his apologetics book, Unbelievable. It’s a delightful book — clearly argued and engaging to read — so much so that it even earned an endorsement from yours truly! It also earned a book-length response from several atheists, predictably titled Still Unbelievable. Ever the hospitable host, Justin has invited two […]
Would you sacrifice your son if God told you to?
Yesterday I noticed the following retweet from Secular Outpost in my feed: Dawkins’ question is an example of what I call the “If there is a God then everything is permitted” meme. According to this meme, theism leads to moral chaos because God could command actions that constitute moral atrocities. I frequently encounter this particular […]
Did God Really Command Genocide? A Review (Part 3)
Paul Copan and Matthew Flannagan. Did God Really Command Genocide? Coming to Terms with the Justice of God. Baker, 2014, 351 pp. Welcome to the third (and final) installment in my review of Paul Copan and Matthew Flannagan’s book Did God Really Command Genocide? For part 2 click here. The second installment of this review ended […]
Did God Really Command Genocide? A Review (Part 2)
Paul Copan and Matthew Flannagan. Did God Really Command Genocide? Coming to Terms with the Justice of God. Baker, 2014. 351 pp. This is the second (and penultimate) installment in my review of Paul Copan and Matthew Flannagan’s book Did God Really Command Genocide? For part 1 click here. I recommend readers begin with part […]
Did God Really Command Genocide? A Review (Part 1)
Paul Copan and Matthew Flannagan. Did God Really Command Genocide? Coming to Terms with the Justice of God. Baker, 2014. 351 pp. Given the spate of books recently published on the Bible and violence, you might think this is a newly discovered problem. That would be a misreading, however, for theologians have wrestled with this […]
Perfect Divine Being, Perfect Divine Commands
Yesterday one of my readers, Mark, raised the following objection to divine command theories of ethics: “It’s certainly conceivable that there is an omnipotent, omniscient creator of the universe who orders us to kill each other for fun. Correct me if I’m wrong, but philosophers generally take such things as pretty good evidence for possibility. […]
