Why is it necessary that God be good?

by gubberningbody 29 Replies latest jw friends

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  WTWizard

  There is no proof that God is even benevolent. He could just have absolute power and pride, and be able to think well ahead enough so He could maximize total suffering, and be setting up a scam to make people think He is good. And, all too many people are falling for that scam.

  For instance, why is it that final judgment always seems to be the same few years off, no matter when you look? Why has society had such total resistance against a paradigm that allowed true freedom and prosperity for everyone for so long? Every time society took a turn for prosperity and freedom, some axxhole (I would even say, by the name of Jehovah) would step in, and tyranny and oppression would once again reign supreme. I would say that it could well be that Jehovah wants to keep us distressed, so He could dangle deliverance from this distress in our faces. There would be conditions to be met if we are to benefit from this "deliverance", which never seems to happen in anyone's lifetime yet is promised within a few short years.
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  Robdar

  I like Agonus' take on the matter. I believe we do ourselves a grave injustice in trying to define the deity.
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  PSacramento

  I believe we do ourselves a grave injustice in trying to define the deity.

  Very well said.

  I learned that 99% of the so-called "fearful" things that He has supposedly done... and will do... are LIES. The 1% is Him acting on behalf of those in a covenant relationship with Him, which covenant OBLIGATES Him to act.

  The TRUE God is not the angry, vengeful "monster" that Israel... and many religions... have made Him out to be. That is why Christ came... "to bear witness to the TRUTH" about God.

  There is much truth here.
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  BurnTheShips

  Why is it necessary that God be good?

  I suppose there is no necessity at all. So lets assume God is evil.

  Then why is there good?

  In another Universe, X-JWs would be arguing: "Why is it necessary that God be Evil"?

  And I would be engaging in cacodaemony on this board instead of theodicy.

  Those pesky parallel realities.

  BTS
• 

  frankiespeakin

  BTS,

  I suppose there is no necessity at all. So lets assume God is evil.

  Then why is there good?

  Don't forget good and evil are human terms, why assume either of God especially if we assume that he is unfathomable why anthropomorphize him at all and put him in a box with limits based on limited reasoning and human assumptions of what God should be.

  If we proclaim him to be unfathomable, and then ascribe human limits to him we contradict ourselves.
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  Twitch

  If there is a SB (Supreme Being), there really isn't any logical necessity that it would conform in any manner to what we call "good".

  Agreed. If there is, I'd reason first that it may be something that doesn't necessarily have sentience, in that it is "aware" of us specfically. Perhaps it is just the "momentum" of exisiting systems of physics, matter and life that give the impression of someone at the wheel.

  Secondly, I might say it is ambivalent to us in that our concepts of good and evil are projected manifestations of our own nature. Is it evil that some animals eat each other or kill their young in some circumstances? No, but it is "nature" in a sense and god doesn't seem to mind. Different result if people do the same things, for obvious reasons.
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  THE GLADIATOR

  First we would have prove the existence of god and the question would then answer itself.

  Until that happens we are left to ponder the results of positive and negative behaviour. What we think is off as beneficial to us personaly we lable good. And what we perceive as harmful we lable bad.

  Good and evil are simply concepts that are used to define the effect that peoples behaviour has on us or those we care about or identify with. Or what benefits us as a race of people or the human race as a whole. Good and evil are largely subjective terms that have no value without context. The idea of an invisible mystical creature roaming the earth trying to harm people is a trick of the mind. But then the mind is not entirely rational.
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  artemis.design

  I think the idea of God being good is a fairly recent idea on the scale of things. Almost every culture had some form of supreme being, but he/she was a God to be feared, not loved. If there is a God, I don't think he/she would even possess human qualities. I think God is far beyond our tiny minds, existing as neither good or bad. I personally think Christians have made God "good" as the powerful, angry, vengful God of the Old testament, that murders and destroys, does not fit with the merciful and forgiving God they would rather talk about.
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  superpunk

  First we would have prove the existence of god and the question would then answer itself.

  Good point.

  The first step in answering the thread question may very well be;

  "Why is it necessary that God be?"

  It may be nothing more than a societal character flaw, filling a hole in certain people's personality with a good story, and a hope for something more.
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  quietlyleaving

  well Socrates put the virtues to a very thorough examination. I'm a little fuzzy on this as we have only just started to study some of what he said but what sticks in my mind is that he likened himself to midwife - never really giving birth himself but helping others to do so.

  I think he would say that it is necessary for "God" to be good so that there may be an ideal of goodness for humans to reach for. However, Socrates himself, I think, would question conventional ideas about god as he tended more towards atheism. But as to what goodness actually is, this would have to remain an open question because goodness does incorporate polarities (I don't think that Socrates would agree with me though as he tended to wonder that there may be an ultimate form of goodness).

  Overall I agee with those who say the deity is beyond definition.