(January 18, 2019 at 3:06 pm)vulcanlogician Wrote:(January 18, 2019 at 12:58 pm)Acrobat Wrote: h
In my view it’s not like logic, it is like Truth. Logic, and reason may be used to discern what’s is True or what is Good, but is not truth or good itself, which exists independently of logic. To say it’s similar to logic, is like suggesting a shovel used to dig gold out of a ditch, is like gold itself.
But then we agree, don't we? Logic is a tool with which can unearth the Truth. The truth is that the Good exists. Logic can carry you from not knowing the Good to knowing the Good. Knowing the Good leads to doing good actions. Doing good actions is what we call moral or virtuous behavior.
Unless you think that theists are the only ones capable of using logic, why is religion necessary? What keeps an atheist from knowing the Good?
A few things here,
Good is an external reality, that tells us that we ought to be Good, endows moral obligations and duties upon us, served as its own moral authority. Sounds very much like a God to me, but not to you?
In fact in Plato’s conception the Good is the author of everything beautiful and right.
Secondly, knowing the Good, might be needed to do Good, but doesn’t in and of itself. A thief knows that stealing is wrong but steals anyway, the man cheating on his wife knows adultery is wrong but does it anyway.
Or as Paul might put it: “For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing.”