(October 29, 2015 at 8:37 am)alpha male Wrote:(October 29, 2015 at 7:54 am)Irrational Wrote: State the differences.Sure. From dictionary.com:
benevolent: characterized by or expressing goodwill or kindly feelings
good: morally excellent; virtuous; righteous; pious
While I didn't define these, I illustrated them earlier with an example, which everyone has ignored. Expanded version:
A judge is sentencing a convicted murderer. The judge tells the man that he's really good at heart and sentences him to eat a piece of chocolate cake, then go on his way. This would be benevolent of the judge, as it expresses goodwill and kindly feelings. It would not be good of the judge, as it is not morally excellent or righteous.
Regarding god, judgments such as the flood are obviously not benevolent, but they are from god's POV righteous, and therefore good.
According to dictionary.com, one of the synonyms for benevolent is good.
You are forcing a distinction where there shouldn't be. For a lot of people, and from the point of view of justice, it wouldn't be benevolent or good for a judge to let a convicted murderer go his merry way without having him be held accountable for his actions.
