The Human Question

In Plato's  Euthyphro , Socrates poses the following question to a young man of the same name, who is heading to the courthouse in order to indict his own father: is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?  If the former alternative is correct, then the study of philosophy is more worthwhile than learning stories about the gods. If the latter, then it is appropriate to study the stories of the gods in order to learn how to act so as to win their approval. Euthyphro believes that the latter is correct, but the way he withers under Socrates' questions suggests that the that the gods are not our guide: if we want to understand piety, we are wise to study philosophy rather than be concerned about whether it is approved of by the gods. If we turn our attention from ancient Greece to the monotheistic cultures of the Abrahamic faiths, we can ask a similar question, but this time keeping in mind that God, as understood in monot