To say that good and bad are defined by God's commands means one of two things:

1) Actions are good because God commands them OR

2) God commands actions because they are good.

How do we know which is right? It cannot be both, but at the same time, it has to be one. If actions are good merely because God commands them, then goodness becomes something that is arbitrary. Whatever God commands would then be good. If God had ordered us to murder, rather than to refrain from such an action, then murder would be good.

If we take the second view, namely that God commands actions because they are good, then we look at it this way. We feel that God's commands are made in our best interests. To say that God commands us to be truthful because, in his omniscience, he knows that truthfulness is good is much different from saying that truthfulness is good because God commands it. And if there are independent standards of right and wrong, perhaps we can figure them out and obey them without God.

Say we accept the first statement, that actions are good because God commands them. This implies that any command that God gives is automatically good, since his giving of a command is what makes it to be good. God could have commanded that people should lie, steal, cheat and that would have made such actions good! Why? Because the mere fact of God commandin

Some common words found in the essay are:
Figuring God, God God, Whatever God, god commands, Socrates Euthyphro, Plato's Euthyphro, Actions God, commands god, god commands god, commands god commands, god's commands, actions god, actions god commands, commanding causes, actions wrong, god automatically, believe god, arbitrary whatever, whatever god commands, god murder, god commands actions,
Approximate Word count = 565
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)