“Hate comes from evil men who cannot stand the reproach of goodness
because it makes demands upon them that they are unwilling to accept.
The more intense the evil, the greater the fear of goodness.
That is why Supreme Goodness is nailed to a cross.”
Outline one problem with the view that God is the source of moral laws and moral goodness
The view that God is the source of moral laws and moral goodness is considered by some to be flawed becasue it leads to the Euthyphro dilemma.
The idea that God is the source of moral laws and moral goodness refers to him as being 'supremely good'. What this means is that either God is incapable of doing evil things or that whatever he says is good becomes good, just because he says so. This also means that God is the one who gives us divine commands as to what is right or wrong.
For example, if you are a Christian theist, then you would believe that God told us what is good and through the Ten Commandments which he gave to Moses.
The problem with this view is referred to as the Euthyphro dilemma (so called because it is a question asked by Socrates in Plato's dialogue 'Euthyphro').
It is suggested that there are two options available to us if God is the source of moral laws and moral goodness.
Either whatever God says is good becomes good, or God tells us that things are good because they are innately good.
These two options, though, present us with a dilemma. If the former is the case, then what God commands is good could be arbitrary and meaningless; he could command that, say, murdering infant children is good, and it would become so, even though it seems evil to us. For example, in the Old Testament, God wiped out the entire poulation of earth with a flood, save one family. This seems abhorrent to us, and contrary to the Commandment 'Thou shalt not kill', but because God did it, it must be good.
Secondly, if it is the case that some things are and have always been 'good', and God informs us what these things are, then he is not the original source of morality - goodness exists externally from God, therefore he is not omnipotent. Furthermore, this suggests that there is a higher being than God which create morality.
In short, the view that God is the source of moral laws and goodness is problematic because it raises a dilemma; if God is the source of goodness, then his commands may not be trustworthy, but if he is not the source, then he is not omnipotent.
