RE: Parallel Between Theism and Naturalism?
October 2, 2014 at 3:58 am
(This post was last modified: October 2, 2014 at 4:11 am by Alex K.)
I think it's an ok comparison. To echo Rhythm, it's the rejection of the argument from incredulity in either 1. a materialistic or 2. a theistic paradigm. I have no problem with either, I never found that class of arguments ("why would god allow X") to be all that convincing anyways as arguments against theism in general.
It does however work against the notion that we can know good from evil by following God. You can't claim that god's ways are unfathomable (i.e. it is not knowable from our perspective why any particular of god's actions is good) and at the same time say that we have to follow God's principles in our actions to be good. Of course, one might say that there are God's rules and God's actions, and that they are not the same. But I think it can be easily shown that God's rules are too few, too vague and too contradictory to give precise guidance, and interpreting them requires an arbitrary input from the reader, or looking at God's actions.
To summarize my argument: bla bla Euthyphro bla bla intelligibility bla bla god's nature bla bla. I'll fill in the details later. After all, just because you don't know exactly how it goes, don't mean that it's wrong
It does however work against the notion that we can know good from evil by following God. You can't claim that god's ways are unfathomable (i.e. it is not knowable from our perspective why any particular of god's actions is good) and at the same time say that we have to follow God's principles in our actions to be good. Of course, one might say that there are God's rules and God's actions, and that they are not the same. But I think it can be easily shown that God's rules are too few, too vague and too contradictory to give precise guidance, and interpreting them requires an arbitrary input from the reader, or looking at God's actions.
To summarize my argument: bla bla Euthyphro bla bla intelligibility bla bla god's nature bla bla. I'll fill in the details later. After all, just because you don't know exactly how it goes, don't mean that it's wrong
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition
