Holier than thou? : piety and paradox in Plato's Euthyphro and the binding of Isaac

Abstract

This work discusses two classical paradoxes which have been offered concerning the nature of piety: the Akedah and Euthyphro’s Dilemma. These paradoxes revolve around the idea that if divine reality determines piety, then piety must lie outside of the sphere divine influence. Accordingly, piety must be dependent upon the commandments of the divine or the divine must subjugate itself to the nature of piety. Many opponents of theism have offered these paradoxes as evidence against the existence of the divine from a moral perspective. In this thesis, I insist that such a theological position need not be held. From the perspective of process theology, the divine can be described as participating in every facet of the universe’s existence. Piety can be described as emulating the divine by actively seeking to improve the world and its inhabitants without falling prey to the paradoxes of Euthyphro’s Dilemma or Divine Command Moral Theory.