Michael Shermer on Divine command theory

Michael Shermer has argued extensively in The Moral Arc and The Science of Good and Evil that morality is a natural phenomenon that evolved long before any of the world's religions existed. Social species develop cooperative instincts because cooperation enhances survival; human beings refined these instincts through cultural evolution into moral codes. Religion codified these pre-existing moral intuitions and claimed divine credit for them — but the morality came first.

Shermer invokes the Euthyphro dilemma explicitly. If God commands things because they are good, then goodness exists independently of God and divine commands are merely reports, not sources, of moral truth. If things are good because God commands them, then morality is arbitrary — God could have made torture moral. Neither horn supports divine command theory as an adequate foundation for ethics.

In practical terms, Shermer argues that the divine command framework has been a consistent obstacle to moral progress. Slavery was defended on biblical grounds. The subjugation of women was justified by appeal to divine order. The persecution of homosexuals continues to be motivated by claimed divine commands. When morality is grounded in unchanging divine decrees, it cannot adapt to new moral understanding — and the result is persistent injustice.