The goodness of God

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

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The goodness of God

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	Created by Sumahlor over 9 years ago