Assuming God exists, Is what is right right because God says it is or does God say it is because it's right?

Question

Please provide analytical (not Biblical or authoritative) support for your answer.

Answer 1

Since God created ALL things...He created right and without right we would not know what is wrong.

Answer 2

Given the assumption that God exists, I think you're also assuming that God created the universe and every thing and idea in it, right? When I say God created the universe, I mean that if He decided, he could have done it differently. If God chose this form for the universe, then He chose the physical laws, the boundaries of the physical universe. Whether He set events in motion that led to the evolution of Humanity or simply created Humans directly, He also made our brains. Whether He told us what morality was directly or let us discover it for ourselves given His latent instructions in our brains and in our social networks which He must have known would result, He gave us the idea of morality. Thus, what is right is so because God declared it to be so, and He could have declared morality to be different and constructed us in such a way as to arrive at a different moral system.

Alternatively, He created a dichotomy between what He said morality is and what He made us to believe. There is biblical morality, and then there is socially-determined morality. The Bible seems to approve of slave-owning and a monarchical system of government, for example, while Western society abhors both. In this case, I would favor God's actions over His words and trust that the morality humans discover through society is the true morality God meant us to find and live by. Thus, we should definitively not live exclusively by the Bible, but religious doctrine reflects social changes, and although religion is normally very conservative it is still a legitimate influence on society. Gay marriage might therefore be wrong because a religious society says so, but not because the Bible says so. Hmm, I don't think I'm being perfectly clear in expressing what I mean, but I hope that someone might understand.

Answer 3

Interesting question. The answer would depend on your definition of "god". I think that the answer is "none of the above".

Why? Well, in assuming that god exists, my attempt to define her leads me to conclude that she is far from all-powerful. In fact, she seems quite disinterested in us altogether. She has certainly never done anything in terms of providing useful moral guidance. She either doesn't care, or isn't capable of providing us with such guidance.

Of the various unsubstantiated reports throughout history where god has provided moral guidance, the purported directions are vague, only designed for certain populations, and often contradictory.

Answer 4

They are the same...

There are 3 types of truth, all encompasing Absolute, Dependant truth, and subjective truth.

Material existence is entirely made of the 3rd type, all Principles and Souls are of the second type, but God [Spirit] is the first type, First Principle of first principles, and God alone is Truth. However, all the others are rational forms of The Former, or partial forms of the Dependant attributes.

God compared to subjective reality chooses what is right for that reality, thus defining times places and measures. However, God compared to Dependant reality is indistinguishable from God's own attributes, which is to say right is right and equal in Appearance to God, and this is the highest reality we can know, being Dependant Beings.

Lastly, God compared to God is unfathomable to the highest rational Soul - that is to say, even though the Attributes of God are defining characteristics to We, to I Am, this is a false limitation, and would prove Dependancy, and thus not be God, but a god... So God to be God must be unknowable, but the Attributes of the Self-Same Reality [God] for us are as God's reality to Us.

To reconcile this to the religions, indeed, this is the very description of a Prophet, or Divine Messenger. Though not God, all God's attributes are seen and know by their Soul, Life and Character.

"He who has seen Me has seen God."
"How is you call me good? There is One Good, and that is God."
"God [the father] is greater than I."
"Do not worship Me, but worship God alone."

All those sayings are from the same Divine Personage, and are not contradictory, and there are many more personages of the Self-Same Spirit, and none contradict. Subjective truths disagree in their differing definition, contexts and needs, as needs be so for there to be time, space and measures.

Answer 5

Well, when did you know that God judged? To enlighten you of this, let me ask you a question, Is eating wrong? The last question is the greatest mystery for you to handle about the existence of God, as I'll remind you of the reality and not of your state of mind.

Answer 6

What God says is right, is because he says it

God is absolute being in this sense, correct?
An absolute right or wrong is what you are asking for
Right and wrong are ideas
Ideas are created, not universal.
So God must create absolute right and wrongs because God is an absolute being

Answer 7

How can you base doctrinal beliefs on worldly philisophy or logic?

If you assume God exists, then you assume the Bible to be true. You can't have one without the other. Nor can you logically explain spiritual matters by their very essense.


God Bless.

Or good luck if that's all you've got.

Answer 8

Things are right or wrong in themselves. No one, not even God can change that. It is what it is.

Answer 9

What we percieve as wrong or right is based on cultural belief and practice. Therefore, we apply our cultural beliefs to our idea of "god's" wrong or right.

Answer 10

If you are happy true honest you are right because god sees all