if goodness means simply 'what God commands' what do we mean when we say 'God is good.'?
thanks for answers!
2007-06-25 08:03:14 · 5 answers · asked by arienette 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
For some people, their god is not just an entity who makes commands as DEFINES good (as divine command theory would suggest), but actually and literally IS that ethical code. This when they say 'God is good' they mean that in a mathematical sense - all good is God and anything not good is not God.
This creates its own curious complications. If God is completely and unerringly good, then it would seem impossible for God to be bad... and thus God would have less free will than a typical human being has. Likewise, if God is an idea or a mood, then how can God also be the physical entity that some also claim he is or a producer of the many bad things we can see around us?
The bottom line, however, is that your question is inherently self-contradictory. People who equate God with goodness are NOT using divine command theory. Good is NOT what God commands, but is God itself.
2007-06-25 08:47:42 · answer #1 · answered by Doctor Why 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
If the Divine Command Theory is true, and goodness means simply "what God commands", then "God is Good" is tautological. It provides no additional information about God, or about Goodness. If kittens are defined as baby cats, then saying "this baby cat is a kitten" doesn't really tell you much, does it?
2007-06-25 08:52:44 · answer #2 · answered by Michael_Dorfman 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
I think when we say, "God is good... We are meerly defining an Archetype.
For instance, good is what we want to aspire too, and aim for.
And in Christianity it is not defined as just any good, cause' that just might not do it for us. Might not solve our problems, etc...
We want it to be an Archtype of a good that is the Ultimate, Above All kind of good.
It's a desire to keep on going in only the right direction, the one that we hope will affect only the best results for us.
2007-06-25 08:15:35 · answer #3 · answered by smoothsoullady 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
God is good... not in our sense of good applied to us but in the sense that God could not be God if he/she would not have pure goodness as a characteristic. You can also say that God is not good, not meaning that he/she is bad, but that he is good beyond our definition of goodness.
2007-06-25 08:17:44 · answer #4 · answered by None None 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
i think it means you are trying really hard to sound fancy and it just sounds like you are pulling stuff out of your @$$ and throwing it on yahoo :)
2007-06-25 08:30:48 · answer #5 · answered by bandicoot 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋