What is the Christian response to Euthyphro's dilemma?

"If god commands only that which is morally correct, then morality is independent of god, and god is bound to act in specific ways in order to be considered good."

Not necessarily. God may know what works for the best for the world and what does not work best for the world. God can command morality because He knows how His creation works. Also, it is the Christian faith that all men have a conscience, and that the conscience was written by God. So it would be impossible to act morally except on the command of God, and God commands what is moral, literally, apart from any subjective morality of mankind.

The concept of morality was very different than our concept of morality. To the Greeks, and certinly Plato as one can read in the first book of his Republic, ideas about "right" "moral" and "just" have more to do with and individual accepting is role in society. In the Republic, Plato uses the body as an example. Justice, morality, or right to Plato is when people proform their obligations to society without attempting to exit from that role. The body works because the eyes see, the ears hear, and the heart pumps blood. If the eyes were to try to pump blood, they would fail, and the body would die. If the peasant tries to rule the state, he fails, and the state sufferes.

Well this idea is in religion as well. Much of greek myth and ritual is concerned with drawing the line between humanity and divinity. When a human gets a big head and adopts god like qualities, we WILL die becuase of his hubris. When Arachne thought she could spin a better rug than Athena, YOU KNOW something bad is going to happen to her. In Herodotus, when Xerxes punishes the God of the Hellespont for damaging his ships, you KNOW Xerxes is doomed.

To the Ancient Greeks, this system of roles was created by the Gods. See the myth of Promethius if you dont believe me, you get a system of heirarchy: man, titan, then God. This system is "right", "moral" and "just" because it is the product of the Gods. But note, its not moral in the modern sence. None of the Gods are moral in the modern sence.

Now Christianity, this dillima is moot. It simply doesn't exist because the nature of Christianity, well traditional Christianity. It is so different than Greco-Roman paganism. In Christianity, people aren't called to fulfill these heirarchical roles. The poor and meek are to be given the heighst honors, while the rich have the same chance of entering Heaven as a camel has of passing through the eye of a needle. Christianity brought forth our modern sence of morality. People are to develop a community where the more successful care for the poor and under privledged. In short, Christianity disterbed the classical ordering of society, hence the Romans persecuted Christians.

Also, in Christianity, on cannot seperate anything from God. NOTHING is independent of God. Morality is a product of God. In Christianity, if you do Good, the Holy Spirit is acting throught you, rather you acknowledge it or not. At the same time, all God does is moral, not just because God does it, but because it has a long term good that human reason cannot always accept, ie. suffering.

I'm not a Christian, but I remember reading Thomas Aquinas' response.

He said that, for Christians, it's a false dilemma because goodness is a part of the nature of God. His nature is the standard of goodness, and his commands are expressions of that standard. I won't say that this made the problem go away; it definitely its flaws, as far as it would be used as a solution. But, I think that, if it were better refined and possibly amended in some ways, he might've at least been on the right track.

Other Christian philosophers in more modern times have tried to find a better compromise or middle course (and they usually just end up taking one side of the command/goodness debate or another), but I really think Aquinas did the best job.

There isn't any word in the Bible that is translated as moral.

The Bible speaks of a relationship of love between us and God. Obviously that relationship can't exist independent of God.

God doesn't command or demand that we enter into any relationship with Him. It is up to us.

i don't pay any attention to the arguments men come up with to try and argue away God.

their thinking is futile and is based on only what they know and think not the complete knowledge of the universe.

just as science tries to explain every thing but what they know.

they have not accessed all the knowledge in the universe

they only make assumptions on what they believe to be true from what knowledge they contain at the certain time.

each new discovery shows they are wrong in their assumptions

Generally, #2 -- which is why they end up twisting themselves into pretzels trying to rationalize God's behavior in the Old Testament, then disavowing it entirely by saying that Jesus did away with all the embarrassments that went on before.

The same dillema (sort of) stated a different way.

Buddha said: If God allows evil to exist, then he cannot be good. And if he cannot do anything about evil, then he cannot be God.

God has to be good according to human standards, otherwise as you say, it would be meaningless to use that adjective.