Is God good?

[Axe Elf]

We can recognize moving things with our hands while also imagining our non-existent telekinetic powers. I don't see why the same could not be true for good and evil.

Because good and evil are not things; they are qualities that we assign to things. If you never had an example of the contrast between good and evil, you would never understand that these qualities could apply to things. Just as if nothing was ever unjust, we would never have developed the concept of justice.

The difference would be doing what you are not currently doing. Am I currently not going on a raid of a local town, raping and pillaging the town folk? Nope. So good would be not doing that, which is what I am doing now, and evil would be participating in a raid.

If there was no concept of good or evil though, participating in a raid would be just as "good" (and just as "evil") as not participating.

Yes. It's not that hard to build a model of small particles bouncing off of an object. We also measure and model light that we can't see, such as x-rays, infrared, and radiowaves. The entire enterprise of science often can describe things that we can't see.

It's not about "not seeing" light; I said if light did not exist. Why would anyone think that there was such a thing if it did not exist, and why would anyone think that it could arbitrarily be modeled as small particles (or even waves) bouncing off of an object? You're only able to say that NOW, because you already have a pre-existing knowledge of light. If you had lived your whole life without it, and without a sensory apparatus to detect it if you ever did encounter it, you wouldn't have a clue what the word symbolized.

So there will be evil in heaven?

There will be the concept of it, thanks to our experiences on Earth that will allow us to appreciate the complete absence of evil in the presence of God.

 

[allfoak]

Hello guys, I'm new here and I have no clue how this works... Anyways, if anyone can see this, I want to ask about something.

God sees the future, so he already knows if we are going to heaven or hell. If we are good or bad.
But God is also almighty, so he can change it. Or he can choose only good people to be born.
So why does he let bad people be here among us? People who are killing other people.
I mean, if God is good, why does he allow wars, terrorist attacks and stuff like this?

It would be cool if I get answers from different religions, but I would be mainly interested in the Jewish view on this issue.

God is all and in all.

 

[Thermos aquaticus]

Because good and evil are not things; they are qualities that we assign to things. If you never had an example of the contrast between good and evil, you would never understand that these qualities could apply to things. Just as if nothing was ever unjust, we would never have developed the concept of justice.

I don't see how that follows. If money had always been fairly distributed within society would this mean that we wouldn't be able to determine if money was being unfairly distributed?

It's not about "not seeing" light; I said if light did not exist. Why would anyone think that there was such a thing if it did not exist, and why would anyone think that it could arbitrarily be modeled as small particles (or even waves) bouncing off of an object?

Telekinetic powers don't exist, yet we can imagine them. We humans imagine many things that don't exist.

 

[Axe Elf]

I don't see how that follows. If money had always been fairly distributed within society would this mean that we wouldn't be able to determine if money was being unfairly distributed?

Like I said before, if nothing was ever unjust, then we would not be able to talk about justice--we would never have developed the concept of it, because nothing would ever be "not-just." Your example replaces the concept of "justice" with the concept of "fairness," but yeah, same argument--if nothing was ever unfair, we could never conceive of the fairness of anything either, including the distribution of wealth.

Telekinetic powers don't exist, yet we can imagine them. We humans imagine many things that don't exist.

But you can only imagine that telekinetic powers would be "good" or "bad" because that dichotomy exists. If it did not, then you could not assign such values to such imaginary creations.

 

[Guy Threepwood]

Hello guys, I'm new here and I have no clue how this works... Anyways, if anyone can see this, I want to ask about something.

God sees the future, so he already knows if we are going to heaven or hell. If we are good or bad.
But God is also almighty, so he can change it. Or he can choose only good people to be born.
So why does he let bad people be here among us? People who are killing other people.
I mean, if God is good, why does he allow wars, terrorist attacks and stuff like this?

It would be cool if I get answers from different religions, but I would be mainly interested in the Jewish view on this issue.

In short: free will.

can any act be truly 'good' if there is literally no choice to do otherwise?

i.e. good and bad define each other as left and right, one cannot exist without the other, and without choice, neither have any meaning.

 

[Thermos aquaticus]

Like I said before, if nothing was ever unjust, then we would not be able to talk about justice

I think at this point we will have to agree to disagree. I do thank you for your replies and for the respectful debate.

 

[roger1440]

Hello guys, I'm new here and I have no clue how this works... Anyways, if anyone can see this, I want to ask about something.

God sees the future, so he already knows if we are going to heaven or hell. If we are good or bad.
But God is also almighty, so he can change it. Or he can choose only good people to be born.
So why does he let bad people be here among us? People who are killing other people.
I mean, if God is good, why does he allow wars, terrorist attacks and stuff like this?

It would be cool if I get answers from different religions, but I would be mainly interested in the Jewish view on this issue.

There are no bad people. There are only bad choices people make. According to the Bible, God gave people the ability to choose right from the beginning. For lack of a better term we can call it “free will”. If we were not able to make choices in life, our life would be like a puppet being pulled by strings. That is not the type of life I would want.

 

[1robin]

Hello guys, I'm new here and I have no clue how this works... Anyways, if anyone can see this, I want to ask about something.

God sees the future, so he already knows if we are going to heaven or hell. If we are good or bad.
But God is also almighty, so he can change it. Or he can choose only good people to be born.
So why does he let bad people be here among us? People who are killing other people.
I mean, if God is good, why does he allow wars, terrorist attacks and stuff like this?

It would be cool if I get answers from different religions, but I would be mainly interested in the Jewish view on this issue.

I used to by even more confused by the concept of God's foreknowledge than you seem to be. However I did come to an understanding of at least one aspect of knowing the future. It is.........God's knowing our future actions in no way what so ever interferes with our freely choosing those actions. IOW if I somehow already knew exactly what you would have for lunch tomorrow that knowledge would not mean that you will freely chose what you will have to eat for lunch tomorrow. Does that help answer your questions?

As to your question about whether God is good or not? Since God is the highest possible moral authority he cannot help but to be good. His nature defines what moral duties and values are and he can't defy his nature. So by default he must be good. It helps if you use the terms morally correct instead of good for clarity.