The basis for morality

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God is Good.
The Goodness of God is the basis for all morality.

All immorality is contrary to the very Nature of God. God has justice not merely as a quality, but as His very Nature. All that is unjust, all that is sin, is contrary to the very Nature of God. Morality is determined by the Goodness and Justice of the Divine Nature.

All immoral acts are in some way contrary to the Nature of God.
All moral acts are in harmony with the Nature of God.
 
i agree!

St. Augustine wrote of the relationship between God & man in his Confessions; **“for you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” **(Ch 1, p 42)

books.google.com/books?id=DRMbsJAvsSIC&dq=confessions+st+augustine+ryan&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=yUwdEXEhzg&sig=XYUMVUSQ_K9yFH-WxAf8x8__M6A&hl=en&ei=9hs-S7XZGY6SsgP20NTBBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false

As my signature says; For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God. . . . His conscience is man’s most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths." (CCC 1776).

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, Ora Pro Nobis Peccatoribus!

mark
 
Ron_Conte said:
God is Good.
The Goodness of God is the basis for all morality.

All immorality is contrary to the very Nature of God. God has justice not merely as a quality, but as His very Nature. All that is unjust, all that is sin, is contrary to the very Nature of God. Morality is determined by the Goodness and Justice of the Divine Nature.

All immoral acts are in some way contrary to the Nature of God.
All moral acts are in harmony with the Nature of God.
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But is God good because his nature has the properties of moral goodness, or are the properties good because God has them? If the former, than those properties are the basis for moral goodness and not God (he must adhere to some external standard of morality in order to be good). If the latter, then what is good is just whatever God happens to favor. If he had liked murder, then murder would have been moral. If he had disliked honesty then honesty would have been immoral. I just can’t see how God can be moral in a meaningful way and also be the basis of morality. If you know of a way around this, I’d be interested in hearing it. This certainly doesn’t disprove God, but it does show that there are some serious problems with saying that God is the basis for morality.

If you’re into philosophy, you might want to check out these two articles by Wes Morriston (who, in case it matters, does believe in God) in which he explores some of the problems with saying that God is the basis for morality.
 
The Essence Of Catholic Morality

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**

**Some Key Points:
**

****Morality is a response to God’s love.
****Love is the basis of morality.
****We are made in God’s image and likeness.
****Free will is necessary for morality.
****Love without truth is not true love.
God is love and truth.

**Christ is the example of morality.

God has Revealed morality to us in natural reason and supernaturally.

**

**
**

Morality
Code: 
[](http://www.newadvent.org/adverts/99001f.htm)
Are There Moral Absolutes? Part 1 of 2
 
anEvilAtheist said:
But is God good because his nature has the properties of moral goodness, or are the properties good because God has them? If the former, than those properties are the basis for moral goodness and not God (he must adhere to some external standard of morality in order to be good). If the latter, then what is good is just whatever God happens to favor. If he had liked murder, then murder would have been moral. If he had disliked honesty then honesty would have been immoral. I just can’t see how God can be moral in a meaningful way and also be the basis of morality. If you know of a way around this, I’d be interested in hearing it. This certainly doesn’t disprove God, but it does show that there are some serious problems with saying that God is the basis for morality.
Click to expand...
The same question is often posed by theology, in the form:
Does God choose His acts because they are good, or are His acts good because He chooses them? The classical answer is that His acts are good because He chooses them.

But this does not imply that morality is arbitrary. God’s acts are His very Nature, and His Nature is infinite Goodness. So God’s acts are good because of who He is. He does not choose good acts based on some exterior standard.

Evil is a privation of good. If we postulate a god who is entirely evil, he woudl have to be a complete privation of all that is good, including existence. So an evil god would not exist.

Whereas the Good God has every goodness infinitely and perfectly. Therefore, His acts are good because His nature is Good.
 
Everything created by God has goodness, but God alone is Goodness. Only God is perfect and infinite Goodness, by His very Nature.

Saint Thomas Aquinas: “God alone is good essentially.… and He is not directed to anything else as to an end, but is Himself the last end of all things. Hence it is manifest that God alone has every kind of perfection by His own essence; therefore He Himself alone is good essentially.”

God is offended by all bad acts because He is good. Acts that are moral are good before God. Acts that are immoral are not good before God. An immoral act is a bad act; it is an evil act. Evil is always contrary to good.

The Nature of God determines whether a knowingly chosen act is either good or evil. All that is good is in some way like God, and all that is evil is in some way contrary to God. All moral acts in some way resemble the very Nature of God, and all immoral acts in some way oppose the very Nature of God. The eternal unchanging Goodness of God is what makes one act moral and another act immoral. Good acts can never become evil, and evil acts can never become good, because God is eternal unchanging Goodness itself.
 
buffalo said:
…
Some Key Points …
Click to expand...
Perhaps one other key point – in God the virtues of justice and charity are identities.

“First Things” published in 2004 an article is entitled: “Capital Punishment: The Case for Justice” by J. Budziszewski, Professor of Government and Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin (firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0408/articles/budziszewski.htm).

In “Capital Punishment: The Case for Justice,” Mr. Budziszewski argues that mercy and justice are rationally irreconcilable. Since Mr. B’s reason cannot reconcile a simultaneous co-existence of justice and charity, Mr. B eloquently offers his faith-filled explanation of satisfying the needs of divine retribution by the intervention of the divine surrogate.

However, properly understood, justice and charity illuminated by revelation must be harmonious and never conflicted because all virtues are consonant in the mind of God. The demands of justice are identical to the demands of charity.

Therefore, according to CCC #2267, I interpret the moral justification for capital punishment must be charity toward the criminal. That is, we may kill him only if prudence tells us doing so increases his chance of redemption.

If the finite is to invade the infinite, it can only do so by invitation and on common ground. Jesus Christ provides the invitation that allows us to participate in His kingdom. The common ground, the good news revealed in his words, life, death and resurrection is that, the method of participation in the kingdom is charity. The virtue of charity is common ground with the divine because God has given human beings greater potential to reflect His image in charity than in our pretension of producing His justice. The Book of Job at least tells us that much. Why God has not elected to illuminate mankind on justice, I don’t know. But he has elected to remove the veils on the demands of charity, especially in the NT.
 
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