Starve to death or Steal food

Previously, we had discussed relativism( subjective and cultural both). Today we’ll be moving further and discussing other ethical theories.

 So, without any further delay, let’s start

Divine Theory

In this theory, we use God’s will as a source of guidance.

This theory states that something( or some action) is ethically wrong or right only if it disobeys or follows God’s laws.

In other words, Something that is prohibited( forbidden) by God is wrong, and something that is according to God’s will is right. For example, stealing, deceiving, and murder are actions forbidden by God. Hence, according to divine theory( or Divine command theory), they’ll be considered “Wrong”.

Similarly, helping someone, according to God’s teachings, is the right thing to do. Hence, In Divine theory, it will be labelled as “Right”.

Now, If we have to sum this whole theory up in just two words, it would be; “God’s Will”. 

Not a Workable Theory:

Even though the concept of this theory seems pretty easy as we just have to follow God’s will, still some arguments go against it. Such as

1. The first argument you might hear is 

“Religious scriptures are hard to interpret”, means that sometimes, 

we face situations where determining God’s will never remain as easy as baking a cake(in fact, baking isn’t easy as well). Because, as we can’t directly communicate with God, we can’t be sure unless we know that interpretation of the Holy books and religious scriptures done by us was right. 

That’s why someone can be doing wrong thinking he is doing right just because of his wrong interpretation of the scripture.

Note: Not everyone can interpret religious scriptures right, that is why it is always advised to consult a scholar or expert to find out the real interpretation instead of playing a guessing game.

2. The second argument you might hear is that “ Holy books or scriptures don’t directly address today’s modern issues”

This seems right, but some people(including me) believe that religion is authentic only if it has the ability to modernize with time. 

Remember: Modernizing doesn’t mean to change its teaching, it only means evolving with society and introducing laws and principles according to the needs of society.

In short, I agree with the first argument but not the second one. Anyway, that was also an argument so I mentioned it.

1. The third argument is “ Society is multicultural, secular” means that not everyone has one religion and the same teachings, neither all believe in God, so, it’s practically impossible for them to follow divine theory because the divine theory is all about acting according to “God’s will” and if someone doesn’t believe in God in the first place, how is he/she supposed to follow divine theory. 

There are many more arguments but for now, we will stop here.

 Example explaining why this theory is not workable:

We know that according to divine theory, stealing is “Wrong” as it is against God’s will. Right? 

But what if someone is out of food and is going to starve to death if he does not get it. 

So, what do you suggest? Should he steal or not?

Because if you look again at the scenario, you will find out that according to divine theory, “Saving your life” is also(morally) the right thing to do. 

But, In this scenario, he can either do right for the first situation, or the second one; not both.

Hence, the divine theory fails here. Because, you are following and disobeying God’s order at the same time.

So, my dear friends, here it comes to an end, and again, it is just how I understood it, so you are free to do your own research but, still, if you find it helpful, that’s an honor.

We will be continuing other theories in the upcoming article. 

Thank you so much for being here.