Divine Command Theory in Religion
Divine command theory features in the ethics of many modern religions, including Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, as well as being a part of numerous older polytheistic religions. In ancient Athens, it was commonly held that moral truth was tied directly to divine commands, and religious piety was almost equivalent to morality. Although Christianity does not entail divine command theory, it is commonly associated with it. It can be a plausible theory to Christians because the traditional conception of God as the creator of the universe supports the idea that he created moral truths. The theory is supported by the Christian view that God is all-powerful because this implies that God creates moral truths, rather than moral truths existing independently of him, which could threaten his omnipotence.
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Famous quotes containing the words divine command, divine, command, theory and/or religion:
“There is a hatred of lies and dissimulation that is rooted in a sensitive principle of honor, and there is another such hatred that is rooted in cowardice, inasmuch as lies are forbidden by a divine commandment. Too cowardly to lie....”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Under the spell of moonlight, music, flowers or the cut and smell of good tweeds, I sometimes feel the divine urge for an hour, a day or maybe a week. Then it is gone an my interest returns to corn pone and mustard greens, or rubbing a paragraph with a soft cloth.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“By his command these words are cut:
Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman, pass by!”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Christianity as an organized religion has not always had a harmonious relationship with the family. Unlike Judaism, it kept almost no rituals that took place in private homes. The esteem that monasticism and priestly celibacy enjoyed implied a denigration of marriage and parenthood.”
—Beatrice Gottlieb, U.S. historian. The Family in the Western World from the Black Death to the Industrial Age, ch. 12, Oxford University Press (1993)