Z
zro_x
Guest
@ wastronian
In order to reconcile God’s goodness with the old testament stories, I think one must abandon the notion of an objective morality in the way that most theists mean it. What is the sense of an objective morality if God himself fails to abide by it? When I say that God is good, I mean that he perfectly acts on his desire for the happiness of as many people as possible, which means that I veiw God as a perfect utilitarian.
The biggest reason why pure utilitarianism doesn’t work in our society is that the ideal utilitarian would attempt to increase the happiness of everyone by any means necessary. However, since he has limited knowledge, his ideas on what provides maximal, lasting happiness are likely very far from the truth, and his actions might accidentally lead to disaster.
God, however, has no such limitations. He can know perfectly whether a particular action will result in an increase in well-being or a decrease in it. We may not see why a particular action leads to an increase in overall happiness (though we often have our speculations), but we do know that there is someone who does. Since God is pure love, he will do whatever it takes to increase our overall happiness, even if it means genocide.
In order to reconcile God’s goodness with the old testament stories, I think one must abandon the notion of an objective morality in the way that most theists mean it. What is the sense of an objective morality if God himself fails to abide by it? When I say that God is good, I mean that he perfectly acts on his desire for the happiness of as many people as possible, which means that I veiw God as a perfect utilitarian.
The biggest reason why pure utilitarianism doesn’t work in our society is that the ideal utilitarian would attempt to increase the happiness of everyone by any means necessary. However, since he has limited knowledge, his ideas on what provides maximal, lasting happiness are likely very far from the truth, and his actions might accidentally lead to disaster.
God, however, has no such limitations. He can know perfectly whether a particular action will result in an increase in well-being or a decrease in it. We may not see why a particular action leads to an increase in overall happiness (though we often have our speculations), but we do know that there is someone who does. Since God is pure love, he will do whatever it takes to increase our overall happiness, even if it means genocide.