Carnal Reason

A few days ago I saw a bumper sticker that said “God is good”. Certainly the Bible says so, dozens if not hundreds of times.

What does it means to say that God is good? Consider a similar claim, “Smith is good”. Smith is a man, and it is asserted that Smith is good. What might that mean? There are as many answers as there are theories of the good. How can we proceed?

Here’s an analogy. It is hard to know whether someone is in perfect health. Anyone can have a subtle heart condition, a blood vessel about to burst, or some such asymptomatic problem. On the other hand, we can be sure that the man running a high fever, having seizures, and bleeding from the ears is not in good health. We don’t need to be physicians to recognize the desperately ill.

Different theories of the good will tend to agree about gross instances of evil. Suppose we learn that Smith is a murderer, a rapist, and a child molester. Almost everyone will agree that Smith is not a good man. Certain acts are incompatible with a broad range of definitions of the good.

Suppose someone takes the position that Smith is all those things, but is nevertheless a good man. We would have every right to wonder what on earth he means. The claim is so odd as to be unintelligible. If the vicious criminal Smith is a good man, is there anyone who is not? What must Smith do, per this view, to judged not good? If there is no possible act that would suffice, then the claim that Smith is good is empty. It asserts nothing because it is consistent with everything.

It seems to me that the Christian claim that “God is good” is vacuous in precisely the same sense. It is consistent with every possible state of affairs. Nothing counts as evidence against it. God is good, but the world is an abbatoir. God is good, but in the afterlife He runs a torture chamber.

What would it mean if God were not good? How would the world be different?

Posted on July 1st, 2005 by pwyll
Filed under: religion, war