AS Ethics part b) religious ethics

b) 'A right ethical act is one approved by God.' Discuss. (10)

I've colour-coded, so my point of view is in blue, and the counter-argument is in red. Note how in each paragraph, I've sandwiched the counter-argument in between two of my points, to ensure my line of argument is sustained, pretty good structure to use!

The Divine Command Theory states that any action that God commands must be good because it is God's will and therefore approved by him. Many Christians accept this as an ethic, and blindly follow God's law. However I do not agree that it is a suitable ethic to be followed. 

Firstly, there will always be the question as to how we know what God's will is. Christianity states that God is a superior being that we will never be able to fully understand, therefore it is difficult to know what he intends for us to do and follow his commands without question. Some people may argue that this is one of the main concepts of the Divine Command Theory, as it involves fully trusting God and strengthens our faith in him and his laws, however this still fails to address the issue of how we are to know God's will for certain. This is a particularly prevalent issue when considering contemporary issues, such as IVF and abortion, which are not specifically mentioned in the Bible due to the difference in lifestyles and cultures between the time it was written and now. Therefore, it is difficult to follow the Bible or other Christian teachings for all situations, which suggests that perhaps God's commands should not be the only source of morality that we turn to when making ethical decisions.

Furthermore, the Divine Command Theory greatly restricts our free will, as it states that we should blindly follow God's instructions without using our own reason or sense of morality. On the other hand, some may say that our morality is God-given, therefore God possesses the ultimate morality and therefore anything he commands us to do must be good and right. Nevertheless, this contradicts Aquinas' theory of synderesis, and the idea that God gave us our own sense of morality n order for us to be able to use reason to make ethical decisions ourselves. This suggests that Divine Command Theory is not necessarily the best ethic, as for us to be truly good, we should be able to decide ourselves what the right ethical act is, and should not simply be following God's laws to the letter.

The Euthyphro Dilemma also disagrees with the above statement. In this argument, it states that if 'X is good because God commands it', then surely the meaning of 'goodness' is lost, as it is simply what God is commanding rather than humans choosing to do a good act of their own accord. Some people may argue against this, saying that God is good and omnibenevolent, therefore anything he commands will be good and a moral act will be anything be commands. However, this still raises the question regarding the definition of 'good' itself. If what God commands is automatically categorised as good, then good or bad is simply defined by the whims of God and is completely arbritrary. For this reason, the Divine Command Theory cannot be a good ethic to follow, as surely a good action should be determined by our own sense of morality and choice to follow what we feel is right, rather than blindly accepting and following divine authority.

In conclusion, although many religious people would agree that an ethical act is simply what God commands, there are also many arguments against this, stating that morality should come from our innate sense of right or wrong, allowing us to utilise our free will, rather than following the laws of divine authority without feeling the need to question them.

Mark: 10/10, comment: "PERFECTION." (Yes, my teacher really said this.)