why must God be good?

[PureX]

Is that so?

It's one way that the god-concept can work for us. Yes.

Maybe you can tell that god of yours that he really ought to put his papers in order and begin punching the card every once in a while, then?

Why? I don't need any papers or cards punched. The reality of God I'm looking for is all around me. All I need to do is open my eyes and trust in it. I'm not saying that's always easy, but it's an option that is always available.

It is just silly, as well as dangerous, to deliberately fail to notice when god-conceptions are dysfunctional or worse.

I agree. But that does not negate the very positive and powerful gifts that faith in an appropriate God ideal can give us.

 

[Heyo]

So 'thou shalt not eat the magic mushroom' or careful with the wildwood weed even if it grew well on the farm.

And be careful with the rye. A special fungus, ergot, may grow on it and ergot poisoning is no fun. It has been hypothesised that the apocalypse of John has been written under the influence of ergot.

 

[Eddi]

You need to learn to finish your sentences.

I don't much care for full-stops

They make things sound so final

I rarely use them at the end of a sentence unless I want to emphasise that the sentence is over.

"Good or reasonable" according to whom, and by what standard? And if we recognize that "God" is a mystery, how can we determine any of this? If "God" IS the standard, how can God not meet the standard? See what I mean?

Speaking only for myself, according to me and to my own standards

I can only speak for myself, I am not the representative of humankind

And we have to go on what we *do* know about God

God is whatever we presume God to be because God is an idea in our heads, at least to us. So I don't see that any of this matters. If we are seeing God as 'bad', all we have to do is change the way we imagine God to be in our minds, to being 'good'. Done and dusted. Problem solved.

So you're saying that God is only as good or bad as we imagine it to be?

Sounds a lot like self-deception to me, or burying one's head in the sand.......

If we followed that plan there could be a wicked God who would never be called out for his wickedness

At what "word"? God isn't giving us any words that we are not choosing to pretend God to have given us. And we can just as easily pretend God didn't give them if we don't like them. You seem to be proposing that we create an evil God for ourselves, and then blame God of being evil. And that's just silly. Why do any of that?

By his "word" I mean scripture, which is what a great many believers take as God's word

And scripture clearly claims that God is good:

36 Bible Verses about the Goodness of God — Bible Lyfe

Doubting God’s goodness? Reflect on these Bible verses to remind you of the truth: “God is good and his goodness endures forever.”

www.biblelyfe.com

But in spire of this, God has said and done some horrible things

Personally, I'm more inclined to judge him by what he does, rather than by how much he bigs himself up in scripture

We can presume anything we want to, because we can't know otherwise. So why presume God is a morel problem when we can just as easily and justifiably presume that God is not a moral problem? It makes no sense.

Until all the facts are known we have to discern a working hypothesis which which to understand God

The issue of God's morality should be a vitally important one but a great many people just assume he's all good and loving, thanks in part to Jesus being a pretty cool guy......

I think this is uncritical to say the very least and personally I think that the morality of the Abrahamic God is somewhat dubious, accoridng to my own standards.

 

[LuisDantas]

It's one way that the god-concept can work for us. Yes.

Why? I don't need any papers or cards punched. The reality of God I'm looking for is all around me. All I need to do is open my eyes and trust in it. I'm not saying that's always easy, but it's an option that is always available.

I agree. But that does not negate the very positive and powerful gifts that faith in an appropriate God ideal can give us.

Let's just say that I emphatically disagree, then.

 

[Bthoth]

God enabled life to whoever and whatever He wants. Because I can 'see' life I am happy about that and I am thankful to God that I have life. The Almighty God desires people to respect and honor their parents. I did not know these things early on even though I went to religious services, and I am glad I know them now, also so I can look forward with happiness to the future God (not mankind) promises.

Nice start. Honor thy mother and thy father.

The promise is that eventually mankind will understand. And be capable to live for ever and know it.

That is why giving of self for life to continue is so important. Trust that the bosses will, 'WILL be done'.

Have faith. eventually the truth DOES unveil!

 

[Bthoth]

What you describe to me is an emotional experience not the deep kind. The closest I can come to the difference is this video:

It's interesting that atheists and literalists both read the Bible literally. What evidence is there that such a thing happened? And what evidence is there that a being called satan actually exists? There is much evidence that swallowing the Bible literally whole is not supported by either logic or scientific evidence. There is evidence that passages were changed or at least suppressed.

I suppose it's natural that Westerners living in Christian countries would focus on what is very common to them but it is limiting.

The smilie face guy is expressing the emotion angle. i was expressing pure appreciation (love)

then accept that mankind is conscious life, capable of both good and bad. Evil of other is a capability of the conscious life (mankind).

but be certain , there is no outside cause (devol) or satan. "We' are the capable of either. The perspective is what is varied.

 

[Bthoth]

And be careful with the rye. A special fungus, ergot, may grow on it and ergot poisoning is no fun. It has been hypothesised that the apocalypse of John has been written under the influence of ergot.

I could just image how a simple fungus became prophecy

 

[Brickjectivity]

Why exactly do people insist that an essential characteristic of God is goodness?

If we're talking about the God of the bible then he doesn't seem all that good to me

I think that at the very best he is morally inconsistent

When talking about God or Gods, what does goodness even mean?

A mystical answer: because in serving a good one we make the other one fade away, not erasing it so much as leaving its reality for a better reality. As human beings we have the ability to taste, to test what or isn't good.

You and I both have enlightened moments where we wish for the good of all.

 

[viole]

Why exactly do people insist that an essential characteristic of God is goodness?

Who would make up an evil God?

And what is "good"?

Ciao

- viole

 

[viole]

hy exactly do people insist that an essential characteristic of God is goodness?

Beats me. Especially because nobody knows what "good" means.

Do you know a good God, among the ones people believe in today?

Ciao

- viole

 

[Kelly of the Phoenix]

God enabled life to whoever and whatever He wants. Because I can 'see' life I am happy about that and I am thankful to God that I have life. The Almighty God desires people to respect and honor their parents. I did not know these things early on even though I went to religious services, and I am glad I know them now, also so I can look forward with happiness to the future God (not mankind) promises.

What He often fails to make are nonabusive parents.

 

[Kelly of the Phoenix]

Oh, no, sorry, evolution is mindless except that it developed minds in -- humans and more, right? genetically speaking, of course. Bye for now.

Knowing that I fell because of gravity is way different than knowing that God pushed me down.

 

[Kelly of the Phoenix]

It's interesting that atheists and literalists both read the Bible literally. What evidence is there that such a thing happened? And what evidence is there that a being called satan actually exists? There is much evidence that swallowing the Bible literally whole is not supported by either logic or scientific evidence. There is evidence that passages were changed or at least suppressed.

Even metaphorically, it means God will do whatever floats His boat, even if you are without fault.

 

[Heyo]

Who would make up an evil God?

People living on a volcano?

Some gods have an anger management problem and need to be soothed with worship and sacrifices.
(Thinking about it, that also goes for YHVH of the OT and Poseidon of the Greek mythology and other angry gods.)

 

[viole]

People living on a volcano?

Some gods have an anger management problem and need to be soothed with worship and sacrifices.
(Thinking about it, that also goes for YHVH of the OT and Poseidon of the Greek mythology and other angry gods.)

Those gods are supposed to be good, too.

i am not aware of any not good God. Even of Its tenets look sort of morally weird. Are you?

ciao

- viole

 

[Heyo]

Those gods are supposed to be good, too.

Supposed to be - but are they? Mass murderers who kill indiscriminate are "good"?
I know, I said it myself that the morals of people in the past or from different cultures were different. They may have had room for mass murderers to be "good". But for people from the West and today justifying their gods actions seems a bit ... strange.