Is It Possible to Overcome Euthyphro Dilemma - Research Paper Example

Is it possible to overcome Euthyphro's Dilemma? The question about the rights and wrongs started from the evolution of human beings itself. Holy Bible says that God has created human in his own appearances and gave full authority over the entire things in this world except the fruits of one tree. However, Adam committed the first wrong thing in this universe by violating the instructions of God and eating the fruits of the prohibited tree. Even though Satan and his wife persuaded him in doing so, his act is still believed as the first sin in this world. From then onwards, the segregation of right and wrong started in this world. Socrates has once asked a difficult question to Euthyphro about morality or ethics. “Almost all the objections to theistic ethics can be thought to derive from the famous Euthyphro dilemma”(Bagget and Walls, p.4). In a conversation between Euthyphro and Socrates Euthyphro asserts that “holiness is what all the gods love, and unholiness is what they hate (Joyce, p.50). Socrates asked him a confusing question; "Is the pious being loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is being loved by the gods?" (Bagget and Walls, p.32). In other words, Euthyphro faced the dilemma of whether to define morality in terms of will of God, or it should be perceived as the actions of God. Plenty of theologian and philosophers struggled to explain or answer Euthyphro’s dilemma. This paper analyses the above question in a philosophical manner and explores the possibilities of overcoming this dilemma. Before answering the question of morality, it is necessary to discuss something about God. No science or technology has yet succeeded in unveiling the mysteries surrounding life before birth and life after death. If the soul is the driving force behind human body, what happens to our soul after our death is often a confusing question. Until science succeeded in unveiling the mysteries surrounding life and death, it is logical to believe in a superpower or God. God is an indefinable entity. If people are able to define God, then the importance of God will be lost. All the living things in this world are only creations and God is the creator. The creator should always have superior power and abilities than the creations. For example, a computer or robot cannot work properly without instructions from humans even though it may have superior abilities. In other words, computers or robots may never become superior to humans. Same way God is always superior to us because of his superior power and abilities which are beyond the grasping power of humans. Now come to the question; Is the pious being loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is being loved by the gods?. The answer should be the first one. Even though God knows everything happening in this world, he is not interfering in all things happening on earth. Bible and Quran have references about the existences of evil forces in this world. Many people have the doubt that if God is a holy entity, then why he permitted the interactions of evil forces in this world which is created by God. The evil forces always try to increase their strength by forcing people to commit sins in order to question the authorities of God. On the other hand, God has no necessities to strengthen his kingdom with the help of external forces since no external forces can challenge his supremacy ever. The evil forces are making a desperate effort to challenge God’s supremacy. God sent the human to this world with a mission. He wanted only the right people in his eternal kingdom. Earth is a laboratory for God in which the reactants like humans and evil forces interact each other. These interactions will create certain products, which may be analyzed by the God later. Those who succeeded in defeating the efforts of evil forces may join God in his kingdom, whereas others will be destroyed in this world itself. In order to conduct his testing process successfully, God allows evil forces to make their own efforts to derail the human life from their journey towards eternity. In other words, the existence of right and wrong or morality and immorality are here in this world with permission from God. God always like morality since the concept of God has no existence without morality. Euthyphro’s dilemma can be perceived as the struggle to segregate between the order of being and the order of knowing (Bagget and Walls, p.160). The existence of God is purely accepted on behalf of beliefs rather than any scientific evidences. Beliefs can be right or wrong. Even scientific principles are questionable at times. Albert Einstein says; “nothing is absolute in this world and everything is relative”. In other words, even scientific principles in this world cannot be absolute. It is comparatively better than other things in this world. That’s all. God is not a product of this world and hence the principles this world is not applicable to him. It is impossible to think that one day computers will command us and ask us to live in a particular way. Computers are creations of human and it should obey the instructions of human. We do not know what is going on in the computers even though we are getting the results. Same way, we are operating based on the instructions of God and human soul which is the messenger of God direct us in doing things. However, as mentioned earlier, the influence of evil forces, often force us to work against the instructions of human soul or spirituality and work in favor of the body or the physical world. God has give importance to a spiritual world even though he has created everything in this physical world to assist the spirituality of the people. Human on the other hand, is trying to change the principles of God. They are trying to use spirituality for getting physical things, which is against the wish of God. Human life is fixed on the pillars of morality. If God is an immoral entity, He cannot create the pillars of this world on morality. It is difficult for us to stay in two boats which moving in opposite directions. Morality and immorality are boats which are going in opposite directions. Common sense of human forces him to think that the society cannot last long if it obeys the laws of evil forces. In other words, morality helps human in binding the society together. If morality is not there, people will do things at their own will and the existence of this society could be in danger. Think of a world in which people do things at their own will. In such a world, only the dominant evil forces will survive. In other words, common sense force human to think that it is the morality or moral principles which helps him to maintain his life in this world. If the creator has not introduced the concepts of morality, this world would have been immediately after its evolution. Suppose John loves Mary. Mary is in a state of being loved; she is beloved. If we were asked why John loves her, the answer’ Because she is beloved’ seems hopeless. Rather, we expect answer along the lines of “Because of her intelligence, good looks and sense of humor”. In other words, we expect to hear John’s reasons. Compare the questions “why is she beloved”? Here the answer “Because John loves her”, seems acceptable, but only if we understand the “why” as asking “in virtue of what” (Joyce, p.52). It is evident from the above explanation that God loves holy things because it is holy. God will never try to make certain unholy things holy because of his presence. He always stays with morality and never advocates immorality. It is illogical to think that certain things become right since God loves it and certain things become wrongs since God hates it. In fact, God has created only the rights and the human made the wrong things in this world under the influence of evil forces. There is no point in blaming God for the creation of wrongs in this world. “People have argued and continue to argue that, God by his nature deserves people’s trust” (Bagget and Walls, p.122). Many people have the doubt that if God created everything in this universe, then how the evil forces come to this world. The above doubts can be better understood with the help of a scientific principle in electronics. As we all know, an electron has a negative charge, and a proton has a positive charge. In electronics, the vacancy of electrons is supposed to produce a hole which is assumed to have a positive charge. In other words, even some scientific principles works on certain assumptions rather than facts. The above point can also be explained with the help of Newton’s third law. It says every action has equal but opposite reaction. In other words, for every right thing performed in this world, there should be wrong thin as a response. Same way, it should be assumed that God has created right things only in this world, and the absence of right things is referred as wrong things. For convenience we call it as evil forces. Thus, God is the symbol of morality, and anything failed to attain the symbol of God or morality, can be referred as immoral. “Being holy is not the same thing as being pleasing to the gods” (Joyce, p.52). Holiness may have different meanings when it is interpreted by the human abilities. It is difficult for human to match the abilities or wisdom of gods. If humans are able to match the abilities of god, then human may also become god. In short, the humanly perceptions about holiness and godly perceptions about holiness could be entirely different because of the huge differences in abilities of human and god in interpreting things. Something is a holy thing because it is holy; it is not the case that it is holy because it is a holy thing. Something is beloved by the gods because the gods love it; it is not the case that the gods love it because it is beloved by the gods (Joyce, p.53). The last observation seems to be more logical than the first one. Holiness does not have existence without gods. As mentioned earlier, gods are the only source of holiness in this world. Under such circumstances, it is difficult to have a holy thing without the association with the gods. Gods will never love unholy things. In order to catch the love of gods, human should perform holy things. At the same time the performance of holy things cannot be undertaken independently. It requires the association with the gods. In short, gods love things which are holy and originated from gods. “It is widely believed that even if the theist does have good ground for believing in god, he still should not endorse the Divine Command Theory because of the Euthyphro problems” (Joyce, p.72). However, a believer can endorse divine command theory since he believes in the superpower abilities of gods. Human logics are inferior to god’s logics. Whatever the achievements, human made in his life would become meaningless once he suffers death. No science or technology has any idea about what is happening to the driving force of our body or to the soul. Even science has accepted soul as a reality rather than a myth. If soul is a reality, it is better to believe that the control of human soul is in the hands of gods. Until science unveils the mysteries surrounding human soul or life and death, it is logical to believe in gods and the divine command theory of gods. To conclude, God has created only right things in this world and the absence of right things is the wrong things. It is logical to appreciate God for what he has been created, and it is illogical to blame God, for what he has not been created. In short, the pious being loved by the gods because it is pious. God will never try to make unholy things holy because of his presence. He will always in search of holy things and his presence ensures that the thing is holy. Works Cited 1. Bagget, David & Walls, Jerry L. “Good God: The Theistic Foundations of Morality”. Oxford University Press, USA (April 20, 2011). 2. Joyce, Richard. “Theistic Ethics and the Euthyphro Dilemma”. 2002. Journal of Religious ethics Inc. JRE 30: 1-49-75. Web. 29 April 2011. Read More