RE: Theists: how do you account for psychopaths?
May 25, 2018 at 2:08 pm
(This post was last modified: May 25, 2018 at 2:14 pm by SteveII.)
(May 25, 2018 at 1:37 pm)Edwardo Piet Wrote:(May 24, 2018 at 3:16 pm)SteveII Wrote: No, there is a third way to look at this.
3. Murder is wrong because God forbids it. God forbids it because it runs contrary to his nature ('nature' as in cannot be separated from the whole of God and so definitionally all of God's commands must be consistent with his nature). Not only is God's nature good, it is the paradigm of goodness (as the greatest conceivable being). Therefore murder is objectively wrong ultimately because God's unchanging nature has determined it to be so. Additionally, you don't have to actually know that God forbids it--he wrote basic morality on the hearts/minds of all normally-functioning people.
This response just makes God redundant. As this nature of goodness can be good for exactly the same reasons, without the "Oh and by the way a supernatural being exists that asserts that this goodness is indeed good" part. Either there are good reasons for the goodness to indeed be goodness or there isn't. If there is, we don't need God. If there isn't, God won't make a difference.
Sure there are reasons to assign "good" to something. But what makes those reasons good? You end up with a infinite regress of 'why's' if you can't find a stopping place that provides some objectivity. Note below...
Quote:Murder is objectively wrong because it leads to suffering and it deprives people of happiness.
Why is suffering and depriving others of happiness wrong? Murder might increase my security, alleviate my suffering, or create some happiness for me!
