Good?
Some recent thoughts:
What is the nature of GOOD?
Good is a definition.
It holds value because of a choice for it and not for evil. This is virtue.
God at the beginning of the universe could, along with the physical laws
(gravity, physics, etc.) have created spiritual laws.
This would in effect DEFINE what good is in the context of the universe.
Two questions stem from this.
Is God’s essence the definition of good, where by if God was to do something
“bad” the boundary of where good stops and evil begins would move in real time?
(IE God murders someone so now it is good to murder?)
OR
Is it defined by God at creation in the abstract and he chooses to be a good,
loving God. Wherein he CHOOSES to always do good. In this hypothetical, God’s
choice to murder would not make it Good action. It would be a breaking of his
own predefined rule and Profoundly disturbing but not definitively changing.
I tend to lean toward the second option. Since we are made in Gods image we can
attempt an examination from that vantage point: and our primary
difference over other creatures is free will the things that define some of the
special nature of God might be found in a comparison of man to
animals.
Man:
Free but imperfect will
Desires to do good, but fails
Sees the beauty of creation and the repulsive nature of mans evil.
God:
Free and perfect will
Desires to do good and does
Sees the beauty of creation and the repulsive nature of man’s sin; sent his son
for their redemption and restoration.
Now the one lingering question is what IS good, if God defined it as the
beginning, what was that definition?
Drilling down on good through m-w.com reveals that good is defined by one’s
moral standard.
So to find what God defines as good one should look in his book (bible).
(This since God was the original definer of good for the universe)
God’s moral standard was used as the basis for the universal definition of good
and he chooses to be good in relation to self predefined standard. Note that if
God we’re outside of time that then this would equate with the first option
wherein God’s essence continually defines good, if however as I presuppose that
at least since the creation of the universe he has experienced a liner
existence; then that event is predefined and thus immutable in the present.)
Someone with a humanistic Point of view might hold that since moral standards
define what is good who is to say that there IS a universal good? Isn’t good
just what I make it out to be? No. Because at the end God will stand in
judgment using his standard. This makes it important we know what good IS to
God.
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