GOD AS THE OMNIPOTENT CREATOR OF ETHICS

Theists often hold that ethics is, in some fashion, dependent upon the existence or activity of God. There are countless ways of understanding the precise nature of this dependence; this chapter is devoted to exploring some of these. One particularly strong version of this idea holds that God is the omnipotent creator of ethics. Let us consider this idea in some detail.

All existing entities may be divided into two categories. The first contains all and only those things that are such that it is possible for them not to exist. These things have a contingent existence. Consider, for instance, the very book that you are reading now. Eventually it will cease to exist. Moreover, its author might have been killed before its completion, in which case it never would have existed at all. The second category contains all and only those things that are such that it is impossible for them not to exist. Things in this category simply must exist and hence are said to have necessary existence. Uncontroversial examples of items in this category are harder to come by. Numbers might fit the bill, or Platonic forms (if there are any such things). According to one traditional way of thinking about God, God would fall into this category.