Horn 1 of the dilemma posed by Divine Command Theory argues that "Divine Command Theory is true and therefore right conduct is right because God commands it (or approves of it) and wrong conduct is wrong because God forbids or disapproves of it."But this proposal leads to 2 problematic implications.
Implication (1) If right conduct is right because God commands it, then God's commands are morally arbitrary.
Implication (2) If right conduct is right because God commands it, then the doctrine of the goodness of God is empty or trivial.
We will first give consideration to implication 2.
The doctrine of the goodness of God says God is a morally good being and in fact God is a morally perfect being. If Divine Command theory is true, then no matter how God behaves he is morally good as long as he approves of himself. If this is the case then to say, "God is morally good" means that "God approves of himself."
The idea that God is morally good is a central doctrine of Christianity and seems to be a very important belief for most Christians. It is a primary reason why Christians believe that God is worthy of being worshipped because he is so good.
But if his goodness amounts to nothing more than his approving of himself it no longer seems a characteristic worth praising. If Divine Command Theory is true, then this very important doctrine turns out to be utterly and absolutely trivial. It seems that this understanding of the goodness of God is essentially nothing less than cosmic narcissism.
