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The goodness of God
- Omnibenevolence
- God is perfectly good
- He reacts to people, cares
about their actions and sets laws
- He tells them what is good;
they don't have to work it
out.
- He dislikes cruelty,
rewards good and
punishes evil
- His goodness can
be seen through the
works of Jesus
- He reacts to people, cares
about their actions and sets laws
- God is perfectly good
- The Euthyphro Dilemma
- Is an action good because God
commands it, or does God command
actions because they are good?
- If the former,
anything could be
good if God said
so - eg rape,
murder
- If the latter, there is a
moral code above God
- A response could be that God's
nature is good and he reveals
goodness to us
- For example, he cannot lie, so lying is bad
- Or that we cannot judge
God by human standards
- For example, he cannot lie, so lying is bad
- If the former,
anything could be
good if God said
so - eg rape,
murder
- Is an action good because God
commands it, or does God command
actions because they are good?
- God's goodness in the Bible
- In the old
testament, God
seems rather
destructive (eg
Sodom, the
Golden Calf)
- In the New Testament, he is
generally more benevolent
- Some exceptions, eg story of
Ananias and Sapphira -
punished with death for lying
- Luke 8: A sick woman healed
through faith, Jairus's daughter
raised from the dead
- Benevolence shown through Jesus
- Benevolence shown through Jesus
- Some exceptions, eg story of
Ananias and Sapphira -
punished with death for lying
- Judgement is part of God's goodness
(parable of the sheep and the goats)
- God's love for us a covenant
- Unlike the Prime Mover, God
acts morally
- The PM is only good
because it's perfect
- The PM is only good
because it's perfect
- In the old
testament, God
seems rather
destructive (eg
Sodom, the
Golden Calf)
- Mackie's inconsistent triad
- Evil exists, God is all-powerful and God is
good - all three cannot be true at the
same time
- God must be either unwilling or
unable to stop suffering
- God must be either unwilling or
unable to stop suffering
- Evil exists, God is all-powerful and God is
good - all three cannot be true at the
same time
- What does 'good' mean?
- Augustine: evil is not living up to
what you should be
- An evil action is a lack of goodness
- An evil person doesn't match
expectations of a good person
- An evil action is a lack of goodness
- Perfection
means you
can't be
better than
what you are
- So God is the standard
of what is good
- This means that option 2 of the
Euthyphro dilemma is wrong (see
my other mindmap on 'God as
Creator'
- This means that option 2 of the
Euthyphro dilemma is wrong (see
my other mindmap on 'God as
Creator'
- So God is the standard
of what is good
- Augustine: evil is not living up to
what you should be
- Issues
- The presence of evil
- Most people haven't
experienced God's goodness
through miracles
- Can we judge God by our
standards?
- How can God act for good if
he's unchanging?
- The presence of evil
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