Attributes of God - Omnibenevolence of God II problems
- Created by: Alasdair
- Created on: 14-05-17 15:19
View mindmap
- What issues/dilemmas/problems are raised by the question of God's omnibenevolence?
- Philosophical issues
- Problem of suffering
- Existence of hell
- Challenge to his omnibenevolence (perfection, forgiveness)
- If God is eternal then it is a 'blot on his creation' - Hick
- Plum
- Cannot be omnipotent AND omnibenevolent - but minimally restrained
- Does God have a choice over whether He is good?
- If God is omnibenevolent through his nature, is this as good as if he chose to be good?
- Virtue earnt is more valuable than instantaneous goodness?
- Ramsey and Tillich
- Believe we complicate things by forgetting God is simply symbolic
- Is God portrayed as good in the Bible?
- Evidence God is not portrayed as good
- Job
- Abraham
- Killing 'innocents' - Noah
- Amalekites
- Evidence God is not portrayed as good
- Euthyphro Dilemma
- Criticises divine command theory
- Two-pronged attack
- If God is good then what he commands is good
- This means anything he says, even if we consider it to be immoral, is good.
- If God commands things because there are good, there seems to be an external standard of morality which God seems to adhere to
- Divine Command Theory addresses many of our biggest questions about right and wrong, which is why it's ethical theory of choice for much of the world
- Euthypro Problem
- Are right actions right because God commands them?
- Are right actions commanded by God because they right?
- 1st prong
- You're accepting that God's command alone is simply what makes something right.
- If God determines rightness and wrongness of everything, just by saying so, then entire concept of goodness and value becomes vacuous.
- You're accepting that God's command alone is simply what makes something right.
- 2nd prong
- If there's some standard of goodness that God has to stick to when making commandments, then that means there must be things that God can't command.
- If ethical rules of universe come from some source other than God, then why can't we just go straight to that source, too, and figure out morality for ourselves, in the same way God did?
- Either God is bound by a standard outside of Himself, or God's goodness doesn't really mean anything.
- If God determines rightness and wrongness of everything, just by saying so, then entire concept of goodness and value becomes vacuous.
- Either God is bound by a standard outside of Himself, or God's goodness doesn't really mean anything.
- If ethical rules of universe come from some source other than God, then why can't we just go straight to that source, too, and figure out morality for ourselves, in the same way God did?
- If there's some standard of goodness that God has to stick to when making commandments, then that means there must be things that God can't command.
- Philosophical issues
Comments
No comments have yet been made