Christians, Prove Your God Is Good

[Ignorant]

Ignorant, could you answer my question? Other people have given thei definition of goodness. What is yours? Also, you never responded to your opinion on Drich's comments about genocide

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So, what do you think about Drich's statements, Ignorant? Do you agree with them? Do you believe that under some circumstances genocide is acceptable? Do you think that sex between consenting unmarried adults is worse than drowning a large portion of humanity?

Slightly off topics, but thank you to the Christians who have answered this thread. I like to debate but the discussion is boring if we all agree with one another.

These were my questions to you, Ignorant.

I realize it can be easy to overlook a few questions in a thread.

I am sorry, I didn't even realize I was being addressed. While I haven't read Drich's comments, I can at least answer the questions above.

No, there are no circumstances in which genocide is acceptable.

No, sex between unmarried consenting adults is not worse than drowning a large portion of humanity.

Goodness is the aspect under which we judge things to be more or less able to fulfill our human desires or appetites. As such, calling something good implicitly includes the understanding "good FOR". For example, we eat food because we judge that it will satisfy hunger (i.e. it is good for satisfying hunger), but we satisfy hunger FOR the sake of nourishment and growth (which are both sought under the aspect of goodness). The appetite/desire is "directed" toward fulfilling our humanity. Another example is more abstract: We punish criminals because it satisfies a desire for justice, and we satisfy the desire of justice FOR the sake of social order (which is sought under the aspect of goodness). All of these goods are sought in an order and for the sake of different goods judged subjectively by individuals for one common reason: happiness/human fulfillment. Goodness is the aspect by which we arrange and order our actions for the sake of happiness which is human satisfaction or fulfillment.

IF god IS the thing that, once obtained, completely fulfills our humanity, then he is goodness itself, and therefore, God is good. But only IF.

If god is not the thing that fulfills our humanity completely, then he is not goodness itself, even if he is good under some particular aspect.

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Hmm. Still don't know what you mean by the word "good", but I appreciate your attempt at describing a position of the Catholic tradition. If there are personalized notions of "goodness", what is yours? What is it about a thing, an act, whatever, that when you observe it or consider it, you make the judgment that it is good. WHAT is it? What do you actually DISCUSS in order to unify your personalized notions for collective actions?

I did give you a list of examples of things that I consider good (kindness to animals, etc.)

I might also define good as a way of comparing outcomes of actions. Here is a link to decision theory ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_theory ).

I'm not sure what kind of definition you are looking for.

I think you might be arguing that we can't discuss whether the hypothetical Christian God is good without an objective definition of good? If so, I disagree. In a democracy, we are able to utilize subjective definitions of good.

This just sounds to me that you don't really know what you mean when you say something is good. That is irrational at worst and emotivism at best.

Before this post, I haven't argued anything, so I don't know why you are trying to guess what I am arguing. And yes, it stands to reason that if you don't know what you mean by the word "good" (i.e. if you don't have some consistent understanding of that word) then calling something good is empty and irrational.

What if I told you that God is pastichalony? When you ask me what pastichalony means, I respond with "Environmentalism is pastichalony". When you press me for a more meaningful description, I say, "it means different things to different people." When you ask me what I personally mean by it, I say, "I already told you that environmentalism is pastichalony." If you can adequately imagine that sort of exchange, you will understand my utter dissatisfaction.