iano writes:
Why "love thy neighbour?"...It was given as part of the reason why God commands us to love our neighbour (in the context of explaining the mechanism of salvation).
I'm sorry, but I don't see why it in particular was on topic - it was just god saying "do this", not why we should, but, onwards...
It is inarguably a good thing (at least, I've not seen any argument yet that circumvents it being a good thing) given that the definition of good being utilised by me is "the particular flavour eminating from that which God does, commands, thinks,..etc". By that definition, following Gods commands (which instruct goodness - by definition) cannot be anything but good.
The problem isn't whether we agree it's good or not, but why it's good.
You're saying "it's good because god orders us to do it, and god is good and would only tell us to do good things because god is good".
It doesn't actually qualify why or if it is good intrinsically or if it's good because god says it is.
I know your answer is "god is intrinsically good" sometimes and "god's law of good and bad doesn't apply to god" at others, but you're missing the point - or avoiding it.
Apparently you're saying something like "god says what is good, but it is good because god says it is, but it's also good because it is good" which lets you claim both halves of the question as being answered by you whilst answering neither.
Except here:
By definition, it's good if God says so.
Which means, essentially, that what is or isn't good is entirely up to god - meaning it's arbitrary. Of course, you claim god is perfect (well, you claim
he claims he is perfect) so it's alright...again we have to take god at his word (at a very remote third hand, no less).
God's view on what is good and evil doesn't appear to change.
yes, it does - unless god is happy committing what we would call evil.
he kills the entire world, and says later on "thou shalt not kill". He then sends a bunch of his most rabid followers to kill everybody, including the women and children, who are innocent (or not, depending where in the bible you read it from).
So, either god's happy suspending his rules, or it's okay to do evil things if god gives you a free pass.
no, i'm not a bible scholar, but I don't think something so apparently contradictory can easily be explained - I personally think calling murder "justified" is a pretty evil cop-out, and is a whole world away from "good".
Proving things like Gods existance isn't on the agenda in this thread - we suppose God exists for the sake of argument.
I know, I was just trying to highlight the problems you present - first you have to be sure a god or god exists. then you have to be sure you've got god's will correct or not. then you have to know whether god is what god claims to be. then you're pretty much back at the beginning - is it good because god says so, or because it is?
iano writes:
who am I to question god's authority? well...somebody has to. Granted, it didn't go so well for the last guy to stick his neck out, but look where it got us - free will. that's quite a good trick.
That's fightin' talk. Perhaps you could do a bit more reflection on your first question though - and come back with an answer that's other than fightin' talk? Something more rational perhaps?
Theologically speaking we haven't free will btw. Adam had and lost it when he fell. He became a captive, an addict, a slave to... sin. We sin because we are sinners - not because we have free will and chose to do so.
fighting talk? I'm sorry, but I'm with Captain Kirk when he flies to the center of the galaxy, finds a huge floating head that claims to be god and then asks one small, simple question -
"what does god need...with a star-ship?"
Unmentionably terrible things have been done by people claiming to be acting for the good of everyone else - when I can see this to be so, I think standing up and saying "excuse me, but...I have a problem with this..." is the
right thing to do.
I'm surprised something so passive could be called "fighting talk" and branded "irrational".
™ Version 4.2
