Analysis: Permission to cheat

Prof.: God forbids cheating because cheating is wrong, cheating is not made wrong by God forbidding it.

Theology student : according to the divine command theory of morality, some acts are made obligatory by virtue of God’s command. On this theory, if God commands cheating, then cheating would actually be a duty.

Prof.: this just shows a defect with the divine command theory. If God orders us to cheat then the theory implies that cheating is permissible. But as you earlier noted, if cheating is permissible, then it is impossible to cheat. So God would be requiring the impossible.

Roy Sorensen, Permission to Cheat; Analysis, No 295, vol 67, July 2007, Blackwell publishing.