Plato asked the (paraphrased) question: "Is good good because it is so, or is good good because God said so?" In other words is there a higher standard of morals above God, or does God merely dictate what is good?
I don't know about other religions, but this has been tackled by Christians far smarter than me. In Christianity, there are those who have said that God simply wills what is right and wrong. This view known as voluntarism or the divine command theory, says that God could have, according to His sovereign will, determined that good is the opposite of the 10 commandments if He so chose. Of course, this means right and wrong are not so in an ontological sense, but are declared so by fiat.
The second view (if I recall Plato's view) maintains that God is bound by an ethic above Himself. I don't know what this view is called (for our purposes we can call it the "subservience" view), but it maintains the intrinsic, objective standard of right and wrong, but sacrifices God's sovereignty.
A third view, which I hold, is called "essentialism." What God has instructed us in terms of right and good are a reflection of His character. In other words, God's instruction on right and good stem from His nature. Thus God does not say for example "Love one another, because I'm bound by a standard higher than myself," nor does He say "Love one another, because I've arbitrarily determined this should be so, though I could do otherwise." Rather God says "Love one another, because I am love, be truthful because I am truth," etc. As God says a variety of times in Scripture "Be holy, because I am holy."
You all will have to fill us in on what other religions and philosophies teach.
