With due respect: Is good something in itself, or is something good because God command it?

A few year's ago, my agnostic friend asked me a question, "Does God approve something because it is good? Or is something good because God approves it?"

At that time, I did not know that this question was known as Euthyphro dilemma. This dilemma presents the monotheist (people who believe in an active God) with two paths:

A) Moral goodness is independent of God

B) God determines what is good

In this post I will examine both paths, A and B, and the problems the paths posed for Christianity.

A) Moral goodness is independent of God
God is subordinate to morality
The most prominent problem to the Christian arising from Path A is that God has to follow an abstract entity known as moral goodness. This challenges traditional understanding of God as being omnipotent (Murray and Rea, 2008).

God is not needed for morality
Another problem is that if morality exists independent of God, then this challenges the necessity of God as a law-giver. In other words, there is not a moral need for God to be involved in the world (Oppy, 2009).

B) God determines what is good
Morality is arbitrary
Adopting this stand is also problematic to the Christian. This means that what morality is dependent on the whims of God (Murray and Rea, 2008).

Morality is subject to the strongest

Another issue is that it makes into a "might makes right" situation. This makes God as a tyrant, since he enforces what is moral.

False dilemma?

St Thomas Aquinas, the medieval theologian did address Euthyphro dilemma. He argued that it is a fallacy to separate morality from God, as God is the definition of good. That means that objective good and God's will is the same thing.

References

Murray, M.J., Rea, M. (2008) An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion.

Oppy, G. (2009) Arguing about Gods.

For further reading

Reasonable Faith's link 

William Lane Craig's lecture

Summary: