Divine Command Theory: Crash Course Philosophy #33 

All I know is, God would like us all to call bananas ChomChoms

The Ten Recommendations: 1. I would suggest you don't have any other gods. 2. Please don't make any graven images. 3. It kinda bugs me when people take my name in vain. 4. Sundays are pretty cool 5. Be nice to your mom and dad, if you can. 6. I'd like it if you didn't kill people. 7. Adultery is not that cool. 8. If could not steal, that would be stellar. 9. Please don't bear false witness, if that's cool. 10. Please just generally leave your neighbor uncoveted, it's not a huge deal but c'mon, please.

Hank, I really appreciate how respectful you are in these videos. You say "in this worldview" or "Plato said" objectively, without passing judgment on people who do or do not hold a certain philosophical view. In the comments, people will judge each other for their theist/atheist beliefs, but you don't go there in your videos. Thank you for explaining the topic without taking sides, so we can all use philosophy to investigate and test our own ideas without feeling that philosophy has already solved a problem once and for all. It's a much stronger way to learn and to think for ourselves.

"Thou shalt commit adultery" was a famous Bible typo in a Bible from 1631.

It's crazy to imagine that all this discussion was before the world's top 3 religions were "discovered".

"Is all of modern culture a violation of God's word?" Most of it is, yes

Anyone spot Kurzgesagt at 5:33?

I love when Crash Course makes me think. Coming from a theist, this is a very good video. Thank you.

his mug that says "I drink therefore I am" is amazing and I want it XD

Thank God!! You used one of the Platonic dialogues with Socrates.

Wow, the mental gymnastics displayed here in the comments are really impressive.

When I took Ethics my instructor spent six weeks on Divine-Command Theory because he felt it wholly proved God and would not let it go until someone either proved him wrong to the point he changed his belief or everyone in the class accepted God's existence. He was fired and replaced. Not sure why.

This problem predates the Christian religion by over 400 years.

I think the divine command Theory is just a moral free card, "you don't have to think, god/s will do it for you".

Watching all of those videos reminds me of a piece of philosophy I found in a Belgium comic strip called 'Le Chat' (or 'The Cat') by Phillipe Gelluck. The character in question said in a short strip: "Man made God. As a way to thank him, God made Man."

Thanks Hank! I love this course. I study the course because as a Christian i want to know where different beliefs come from. In the Bible commandments are tied to covenants, and the Old covenant was only for jews before Christ, so it's not a thing today. I hope it helps. Commandments like prohibition of mixing different types of fabric in the context of that age and place were given because mixing different fabric types was a part of pagan cults with human sacrifices surrounding jews. Thus it meant don't practice cults. Most problems with the Bible are removed by knowing its context.

Socrates is just straight up legendary!

I've always enjoyed the Euthyphro Dilemma and it's horns. I can't wait to see the next response to this dichotomy.

If the "ten recommendations" seems to fall short, how about the "eight I'd really rather you didn'ts?"

the three issues introduced at the beginning of the video, while, at first glance and out of context can seem confusing, really are all things that make sense when read into. The ancient israelites made a covenant with God, before the coming of Christ. In this covenant were hundreds of rules for man, and hundreds of promises by God. The rules included the practical, or "humans dealing with humans" such as washing your hands before you eat, and not eating rotten meat. Also there was moral and social practicality, like don't kill and don't steal, take care of widows, etc.. These helped keep a peaceful society. Then there were rules that were meant to distinguish the israelites from the pagan countries, rules such as dress codes and circumcision, symbolic things which identified the Israelites as God's people. The second kind of rules were rules on how to approach or worship God. Very specific, symbolic instructions on building a tabernacle and ceremonies. All of these rules were assigned a purpose, their purpose was as a mirror. Time and time again the new testament asks "can the law save you?" or says "if you keep the whole law, but fail in one way, you are guilty of it all." The purpose of the law was to put humans in their place. Pagans and the tower of babel were examples of people trying to reach God, instead of having faith in Him to reach them. The law, which no one could follow, highlighted the need for a saviour. Enter: Jesus. The old Israelite commandments are not binding to anyone other than the ancient people group that entered a covenant. Jesus eliminated the need for human sacrificial atonement because Jesus came as the intercessor for us all, the intermediary between us and God. All of us are "sheep lead astray" and Jesus "bore the transgressions (wrongdoings) of us all" as an eternal atonement (appeasement) As for the reason that modern Christians still follow the 10 commandments, we don't, not all of them, it just so happens that 9/10 of them were repeated in the new testament. Jesus came to fulfil the law. Jesus also kind of exploded the idea of the Sabbath, and most Christians do not hold a holy sabbath (saturday). When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus responded with the first commandment, more or less, by saying "Love God with all your heart, soul and strength." and then he gave a second, "love your neighbor as yourself" We learned much of the symbolic meaning of the law in the new testament. For instance with murder, "you say do not kill, but I tell you that any man who has hatred has commited murder in his heart." or with adultrey "any man that looks at a woman with lust commits adultery in his heart." learning to follow the spirit of the law above the letter. As for the new testament laws he gave, wearing gold chains was a sign of vanity, and vanity isn't good if you back up in the timothy passage, it starts by saying that people should be modest, and then gives examples how.. and you shouldn't gossip. Anyways, my point is that there are still people, myself included, that truly do believe that the entire Bible is literal and true, moral and practical. I try very hard to live by it, and I do not dress funky or do anything religious. The entire misconception is this: People believe that for God to love them they have to do stuff to appease Him. The whole message of the Bible is that there is nothing that you can do to work your way to heaven. "For it is by Grace (undeserved favor, mercy) that you are saved, through Faith, and not of works...) -Ephesians. I hope that helped, if you have any questions let me know

I am an agnostic. Whenever I'm aggravated ,I hear myself saying OH GOD. It just feels good to cry out for someone.

All your videos are so well done, its aesthetically pleasing to watch as well as having the capacity to blow my mind.

Well done with the explanation of the Euthyphro, my favorite text in philosophy!

I'm pretty atheist but "The Ten Recommendations" does actually sound pretty good to me on about all levels.

NOOOOO! I'm on the last one! Make more!

I'm so glad this series is still going.

There was an edition of the Bible in the Jacobean Era that included the typo "Thou shalt commit adultery."

"God did" - Divine Command Theorist, DJ Khalid

Thanks, this answers a lot of questions. Studying this in ethics!

I would really really love a short series, maybe 2-3 episodes, in this Crash Course for Seneca. I read many things from him when I was too young to understand, but he stuck with me ever since.

The BEST video series! Thank you for all you guys do.

I absolutely love this series.

Nice Kurzgesagt reference in the "Though Bubble." My two favorite channels on RU-vid!

I’ve spent some time looking at religious philosophy and I’ve come up with a pretty solid solution to the issues he has mentioned. The issue is how people view god especially from a biblical perspective

I like this video. It is worth mentioning, though, that the handling of those biblical references made them seem ridiculous. Context is king. Some mild investigation into theology reduces the absurdity. Of course reasonable people could still disagree, but wrenching excerpts from ancient texts, heck even some modern ones, can make sensible things seem ridiculous.

thank you so much for this video this made me undestand my whole philosophy course in 5 mins!!!

Nice Kurzgezagt reference in the thought bubble.

Loved the Easter egg in the thought bubble. For anyone who did not get it - look at the 3 pictures on the right of the window.

What's crazy is people ignoring these collections of logic by no legit/valid counter arguments, and expect people around them to take them seriously; as on the same legitimacy of scientific belief or the philosophical approaches towards our reality.

I really loved this video cant wait to do my reasearches on the theories and all ...but moreover cant wait for more videos of this caregory ...Thank you so much crash course💕✌🏾️

Lol when did CC get 5 Million subs? Congratulations!!! WOOO!!! CRASH COURSE!!!!! I really like you guys :)

Thank you so much, Crash Course! I am teaching this next week, and this video is gonna be great to help my kids understand it!

This was the greatest video of the series yet. The part that talks about god changing his opinion is just like the rise of a new religion and that how do we know what god said. Fantastic guys.

“One day when I was a young boy on holiday in Uberwald I was walking along the bank of a stream when I saw a mother otter with her cubs. A very endearing sight, I'm sure you'll agree, and even as I watched, the mother otter dived into the water and came up with a plump salmon, which she subdued and dragged onto a half submerged log. As she ate it, while of course it was still alive, the body split and I remember to this day the sweet pinkness of its roes as they spilled out, much to the delight of the baby otters, who scrambled over themselves to feed on the delicacy. One of nature's wonders, gentlemen. Mother and children dining upon mother and children. And that is when I first learned about evil. It is built into the very nature of the universe. Every world spins in pain. If there is any kind of supreme being, I told myself, it is up to all of us to become his moral superior.”

pretty sure those laws (deutoromaty, leviticus, etc) are ceremorial laws given to the peopel of isreal for where the messiah will come from, and when jesus said he came not to abolish but to fufil, he meant that we dont have to follow the ceremonial laws, but the moral laws (ten commandments) are still applicable. im pretty sure thats it.

I'm re-watching this today, and noticed for the first time that the Thought Bubble segment has Kurzgesagt (In A Nutshell) birds as paintings on the wall when God commands the faithful to reverse the 10 commandments. Awesome!

this episode definately hits me right in the feels; this is what has been bothering me about religion for a long time

Everyone's busy arguing about religion and I'm just here like "Wow, Euthyphro sounds like a really hard word to say correctly. Good work, Hank!"

So here's a challenge to theists (not a troll I want to genuinely know this for the sake of argument). How do you convince people that it's rational to believe in a divine entity and that you're right about it?

This video reminds me of "The Grand Inquisitor." It's an awesome read.

I listen to Dear Hank and John. I know your voice long before I know your face. But one listen is enough to clue me in who you are. Thanks for all your work. Best wishes to you and John in 2024.

I was disappointed that your description of Plato was not ""fun to play with, not to eat"

In regards to the Euthyphro Problem I believe the 2 questions are indeed two ways of asking the same thing. The question attempts to prove that the reason or cause of God's commands must exist outside of God but the key to answer is to understand the nature of God. So the answer to Euthyphro's first question is yes because "God's commands" permits and enables "right actions" which results in harmonious existence with God which by definition is "good". The answer to Euthyphro's second question is yes because "right actions" result in "good" in that they permit harmonious existence with God and harmonious existence with God require "God's commandments". This is made clear when you break down the meaning of these 4 ideas. Firstly, God is NOT the supreme being WITHIN existence but is the ESSENCE of existence. Secondly, "good" is anything that is in harmony (consistent) with God's intentions/will and since God is the essence of reality all things consistent with God's will do indeed exist. Thus "good" is same as "existence" or "that which continually exists". Evil is the absense of good which is to say that evil is non-existence or "anything" transitioning into non-existenence (ie, decaying, diminishing, dying). Thirdly, a command from God not only grants the permission/authorization to perform the command but also the ABILITY to perform it. This is because God is in perfect harmony with Himself and thus He would not (1) will/intend for something to be and then (2) permit/authorize for that something to be but then (3) NOT enable/empower that something to be since this would be a contradiction on God's part. So when God commands us to do something he authorizes and empowers us to fulfill that command. Fourthly a "right action" is simply a "good action" which is an action that permits harmonious existence with God and thus continued existence period. So when "God commands" He permits and enables "right action" which results in continued, harmonious existence with God which, by definition, is "good". So again, the answer to Euthyphro's first question is yes because "God's commands" permits and enables "right actions" which results in harmonious existence with God which by definition is "good". The answer to Euthyphro's second question is yes because "right actions" result in "good" in that they permit harmonious existence with God and harmonious existence with God require "God's commandments".

When I was a kid I always heard my mother say "what's right is right and what isn't right, isn't"

Loved the In A Nutshell picture frames in the thought bubble around five minutes, forty seconds. My two favorite yotubers together.

I can't wait till all the episodes are out and I can binge watch all of them

Strange, in my religion it's PREFERRED if women wear braids. And it's mandatory to wear a braid during prayer, too. Really interesting...

I feel he forgot to include that God also claims to be forever unchanging so the 1st one is correct because he will never change what is considered good.

I just noticed Schrödinger's cat in the opening. You now have my absolute trust.

I was just talking about this to someone last week. If I have a follow-up this week, I can now direct them to this video.

I think the thing I find most interesting is that the videos do a great job of painting a very simple, clear scenario and approaching it from both sides. But when reading the comments, there's a major element of additional assumptions that were never even a part of the scenario to begin with. I'm not to trying to criticize people for diving in and exploring the problem, but if you try to include all things in your argument, you effectively argue about all things at once. One of the biggest strengths of the series is breaking out questions and beliefs to be considered individually instead of throwing everything into a pile of confusion. Although, I suppose it could be seen as a measure of success that people have taken the original scenario and stretched it so far in every direction.

" I AM THAT I AM" except u forgot one thing, God is the standard of morality. Morality or Goodness doesn't come outside of God. One of the common repeated phrases is God is Good. It doesn't mean that there's this standard of Good which he meets. HE JUST IS. " I AM THAT I AM"

THIS SHOULD HAVE MORE VIEWS.

I feel like crashcourse must have been eavesdropping on me in junior high XD Great video!

Im pretty sure that most of what you said (the braids, the colthes...)is based on the old bible and not the new testament with the venue of Jésus, and where God loosened Up most of his rules, prmotting tolerance, because he founded that the most important thing was the human hearts and not their culture, coming from the saying : if someone slaps you, give your other chick and pray for his soul.

5:40 , "In a nutshell (kurzgusekt???)" channel icons back there on the wall

I love the reverse ten commandment part, "kill, steal, commit adultery, and so forth..." Add in honoring parents and false witness and you have all the commandments that have anything even arguably to do with morality.

i love the leviticus trap thx for this awesomely ha bisky vid i love this a lot and i am glad you are trying to make these videos better

5:06-Look.Kurzgesagt on the picture.

I'm just going to make a comment. I'm not going to start a debate by making some bold claim. I'm not going to participate in any of the other debates. I'm just here to say hi. Hi!

The way you can answer some of these questions, like any book, starts with quoting more than just one line from each chapter...i was raised on the Bible, though I don't really read it anymore. But I can say that it's easy to take things out of context

Thank you, love your show!

4:57 Love the Kurz Gesagt frames.

Nice kurzgesagt reference in the thought bubble

Excellent episode guys :)

haha this was a great video for someone with experience on the concepts, but really short if you're novice, I think. those are really serious horns to mull over! this is easily a couple hours lecture!

The biblical new testament verse about chains and other stuff you just took out of context.

My religion doesn't really have a book of morals. The most important thing is harmony with others & nature. Also clean soul.

CC Philosophy is destroying religious dogma, politely, gently, and effectively. I love it.

Great timing.

I like this series but after this episode I'm just curious why is the syllabus purely Greco Roman and Old Testament-ish, there were other older civilizations with records of great philosophical works completely detached from these ideas, is there a reason they are not covered other than it might be some work to research? Middle Eastern, Indian, Indigenous American, African, Buddhist, East Asian come to mind, I understand it might be because of the language barrier as in the last few episodes the ideas like meta-ethics or aesthetics are modern English words themselves hence easier to grasp, but then maybe label the series as Western philosophy :)

Dilemma: two buttons meme

I appreciate the fact that you guys don't completely trash religion like many other channels would good job crash course :)

This is so awesome

In the intro, the font of the word "Theseus" on the ship changes fonts between shots. God, I have way too much time in my hands

Let's do a little survey of the CrashCourse audience. Click "View all Replies" to participate.

qq: A few times during this series you've referenced Hume, and done good credit to his theories and ideas. Are there widely accepted counter-arguments?

I'm not a big one for philosophy, but the topics in this video are intriguing.

What if your parents are abusive how do you respect them

I admire your restraint when tackling these theistic claims. It's easy to dismiss theistic arguments as the intellectual garbage that they are, but hopefully your more reasoned approach will help some people start to question.

Hope to see some Kierkegaard in the next few to help solve the problems you dressed today. Especially to counter any Hegel or Kant you might purpose.

It would be nice to have some reading recommendations along with the chapter

"figure out morality for ourselves"👍

Hey, Hank. Where do you get your morels? Yes, I mean the edible fungi.

I love the shout out to kurzgesagt at 4:57.

Crash source saving my life 😀

4:32 whoa whoa whoa. hold up there. God didn't actually make anyone kill anyone here, it's a test of loyalty. Abraham did not actually kill his son in the bible.

I'm Christian, and the simple fact is God is good, and goodness stems from God. if he orders you to kill your son, or frame your father for murder, that is good. The thing is, God is not a whimsical Loki-like God that does this. Abraham's obedience was being tested. The shift in divine nature came from the sacrifice of Christ. This is beside the point however, euthyphro's problem simply assumed a very... well... Athenian interpretation of Godhood. And yes, it rips apart the greek pantheon. The God of Jews, Christians, and Muslims is a very different being than what Plato imagined in this story. If he's omnipotent, all knowing, your creator, and your savior, then as far as you're concerned you can only accept that goodness comes from Him and He is good. The problem makes assumptions about the nature of Godhood that died with the greek and roman pantheons.

1:59 Hank throwing shade xD

Great video