(March 10, 2016 at 4:12 pm)Mister Agenda Wrote:Irrational Wrote:True, three persons in one being, according to the Catholic faith, but we are made in the image of God as persons (in other words, like him).
So ok, if that's the case, using that reasoning about God, why not extend this to other entities as well? What is it about being human that makes a human being standing by and watching someone else harm a third person be morally wrong that they be held accountable for not stopping the offender if they had the power to do so?
If it's something to do with rationality or having a moral sense or whatever, then why should God be treated any different (since he has those as well)?
Human beings set rules for their pets and livestock that don't apply to them. It would be silly to make a rule about the dog not being on the bed that applies to you, too. Even if you consider your dog a person; they're not your equal and don't get to hold you to the same standard to which you hold them.
Regardless, I'm of the view that human beings are held morally accountable for certain actions or inactions that I would never hold a non-human animal accountable for due to the lack of capacity on their part to "appreciate" the wrongness of such actions or inactions.
If a lion kills a human being, for example, I don't see it as murder even if the lion was not in danger of being attacked by him. But obviously, if a human being intentionally, and fairly consciously, kills another human being when they didn't have to, that would be (roughly speaking) murder. The difference lies in the awareness and mental capacity to appreciate the wrongness.
So going back to God, it is clear that Catholics believe God has a much more higher awareness of things, and is supposed to be the epitome of moral perfection. If that's the case, then it would be very reasonable to expect such a grand being to hold himself much more accountable for certain inactions than we limited beings should.
Using the argument of free will just means that despite his grand qualities, God gets to bear much less burden in terms of moral accountability than far less powerful beings. Why is it ok for God to respect the free will of someone to murder someone else, but it's not ok for a human being to respect the free will of another human being to murder his enemy? Being all-mighty means he should be able to not let this stuff happen in the first place.