The divine command theory remains one of the most common theories used to explain the link between ethics, morality and religion. Divine command theory remains a highly controversial issue and has been criticised by a number of philosophers namely Kai Nielsen, Plato, Socrates and J.L Mackie as well as receiving support from philosophers such as Philip Quinn and Thomas Aquinas (Wierenga, 2009). The arguments for and against this theory has practical and theoretical significance, both philosophers of religion and moral philosophers have interest in exploring the role of religion in moral thought. (Wierenga, 2009) The divine command theory associates moral goodness to what God commands or Gods will (Berg, 1993). In its purest form it postulates
I have always just accepted that whatever God commands is the morally right action and have never really thought about the arguments against it. After realizing that there are so many arguments against it, this has led me to disagree with the Divine Command Theory. Because there are a vast variety of religions in this world, there are multiple different God or gods that people believe in. Just because I have a set religion and God that I believe in does not mean that someone else’s view is wrong. Also, how can we know for sure what God’s commands are?
The Trinity in Scripture The doctrine of the Trinity is easily one of the most controversial teachings in Christianity. It has been so since the early years of the Christian Church and continues to be so today. Part of the problem is that the word trinity is not found in the Bible. Even so the concept is found in many places and different terms that are used suggest the existence of God in three persons, known as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Scripture underlines love as the foundational characteristic or attribute of these three members of the Godhead (1 John 4:8-16).
It is the spring board for disciplines and studies into religious apologetics, because this question that might seem innocuous at first proves to be incredibly powerful. Pojman asserts that this question highlights the question whether or not morality and religion are intertwined. Moreover, Socrates’ comments and critiques of Euthyphro’s claims provide readers a powerful model for what true dialectic thus promoting the development of a strong intellectual spine and the true core of
Confucius however, adheres to a strict hierarchical societal structure. In contrast to Confucius, Kant, did not assign any special role to the upper class in religious practice ant rites. He emphasises the necessity of all individuals to participate actively in their social and spiritual
INTRODUCTION The authority of the Scripture is fundamental to evangelical faith and witness. But at the same time, not all evangelicals affirm the inerrancy of the scripture. Biblical inerrancy affirms that the biblical text is accurate and totally free from error of any kind. The difficulty in affirming the inerrancy of scripture does not seem to be so much on the spiritual and moral teachings of the Bible, however, the difficulty perhaps seems to emerge on the issue of accuracy in other disciplines such as history, science and acheology. This being the case, Five Views on Biblical Inerrancy is a book on the doctrine of inerrancy where five Christian scholars, R. Albert Mohler Jr., Peter Enns, Michael F. Bird, Kevin J. Vanhoozer, and John R. Franke discuss their various perspectives on biblical inerrancy, narrowing the focus on four significant issues – (1) God and his relationship to his creatures, (2) the doctrine of inspiration, (3) the nature of scripture, and (4) the nature of truth (Merrick & Garrett, 2013, p. 22).
The Ten Commandments dictate the choices and behavior of the Christian and Jewish traditions; given that it serves as the direct word of God. These divine expectations of the people are the path to salvation and righteousness if one chooses to follow them. The Ten Commandments were revealed to Moses by God on a mountain and are later emphasized throughout the Hebrew Bible. However, the prophets, who are chosen by God, stress several other commandments that are not necessarily listed in the Ten Commandments. Even though many of the prophets lived at different time periods, many of their messages are consistent, such as the emphasis on repentance.
So I invited Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons into my home and engaged them in conversations regarding their beliefs, as well as entertaining dialogue with Roman Catholics, Seventh-day Adventists, Pentecostals and others. What I found to be amazing was the diversity of beliefs among persons claiming to follow the same deity. If you place the Holy Bible on a table and invite members of the abovementioned denominations to discuss various issues, you will never attain full concordance. So if this is the 'Word of God', why is it not straightforward, but open to so many different interpretations, resulting in division, acrimony, bigotry, a sense of entitlement, intolerance, human-rights abuses and even war? If you ask
Why? Because God doesn’t listen to polls or popular opinions when choosing His leaders. Instead, He searches out those whom He can trust with His message of hope.” (Schatzline, Pat
With this, it can be said that “He must understand Himself perfectly, which includes a perfect understanding of all that He causes, which is everything.” It is understood, then, that inasmuch as we understand that the perfection of understanding is in God, the understanding of His creatures can be also attributed to Him perfectly. Thus, God knows all other things by knowing Himself inasmuch as all His effects are in His essence in an intelligible mode, for all things are in God virtually as effects in their cause. St. Thomas argues that the cause of all things is God. He states that