Difference between divine command theory?

Question

What makes the divine command theory so much different from other theories??

Answer 1

Divine Command Theory says that actions are right because God said so. It's generally criticised as making right actions arbitrary (the idea is, if God could say one thing's good, why couldn't he say ANYTHING's good?). Other people criticise it by saying that it means that people only need to do good to avoid punishment or get reward (although this is probably not a fair representation of ethics within religion: people tend to say that acting out of love is different from acting for reward).

Other theories have different criteria for what makes actions right, normally based on reason (Utilitarianism, Kantian ethics, Rights-based ethics) or aesthetics (Platonic ethics, some postmodern ethical theories).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_command_theory and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthyphro_problem explain it in simple language.

For more in-depth, try http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/voluntarism-theological/ for Theological Voluntarism, or http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/metaethics/#EutPro for the Euthyphro Problem.

Answer 2

Divine command theory states that not only is something right when it is divinely commanded, but that it is right BECAUSE it was divinely commanded. This includes the implication that if the opposite had been divinely commanded, that would be what is right. (For example, if God commanded that people torture innocent children, that would be the morally RIGHT thing to do.)

Some people defend this theory by pointing out that God would never command us to do something that was wrong, but by saying that, they are implying that there is some standard of rightness OTHER than God Himself, and that God is then relaying that standard to us. But the theory of divine command requires that the rightness of an action originates in God's orders, such that He can command anything and it will be right. He does not command us as He does because He KNOWS what is right- rather, what He commands BECOMES right by His commanding it.