Is God good or evil?

[Guest JeffCR07]

[quote name='PadreSantiago' date='Dec 3 2005, 08:57 AM']God is beyond good and evil.  God probably doesn't even know what that means because he isn't in any way like a human being.  I mean what if some secret bible passage was found that said God was evil and satan was good what does that even mean to them.  If god is evil well than that's all there is.  If god was good well than that would be all there is.
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God is not Nietzsche. Moreover, this post is evidence that you are not actually aware of what the term "God" means. If you understood what the term means, you would see that it is definitionally impossible for God to be evil.

[PadreSantiago]

I'm always thought god mean a being or object believed to have more than natural attributes and powers and to require human worship; specifically : one controlling a particular aspect or part of reality. You can't personify god because god is not a human. when you say things like god cannot be evil well your right and he can't be good either.

Edited December 3, 2005 by PadreSantiago

[PadreSantiago]

haha and anyway didn't you hear? God is dead...and we killed him.

[Laudate_Dominum]

[quote name='PadreSantiago' date='Dec 3 2005, 02:03 PM']haha and anyway didn't you hear?  God is dead...and we killed him.
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Nietzche came so close, he was only off by one letter.

God is dad.

hehe

[Guest JeffCR07]

[quote name='PadreSantiago' date='Dec 3 2005, 01:59 PM']I'm always thought god mean a being or object believed to have more than natural attributes and powers and to require human worship; specifically : one controlling a particular aspect or part of reality.  You can't personify god because god is not a human.  when you say things like god cannot be evil well your right and he can't be good either.
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If this is your idea of God, then you should know that this is not the same idea that orthodox Christians have. For us, God is "that than which nothing greater can be conceived." So what you might think of as "God" or "a God" is not the same as what we mean by "God."

Thus, when a Catholic answers the question "Is God evil?" with a resounding "No," that person is right to do so, because they understand "God" to mean "that than which nothing greater can be conceived."

To give you a more basic example, let's imagine there is a sorceror who can call down fire from the sky and who forces people to worship him. With your definition, he might be called a god. However, no catholic would ever do so, because being God isn't just having magical powers and being worshipped, being God is being "that than which nothing greater can be conceived" - and I can most certainly conceive of a being much greater than the wizard in question.

- Jeff

[Socrates]

[quote name='Laudate_Dominum' date='Dec 3 2005, 02:36 PM']Nietzche came so close, he was only off by one letter.

God is dad.

hehe
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"God is dead" ~ Neitzche

"Neitzche is dead" ~ God

[jezic]

the entire summa is online at www.newadvent.org

(it was mentioned earlier)

[MichaelFilo]

Well... "Is God good or evil?"

"Is the pope Catholic?"

Someone get Aquinas into the author of this thread's hands double quick.

God bless,
Mikey

[tojo]

The Dictionary of Tomasio127:

good: adj. like or similar to the nature of God

[N/A Gone]

God=good, for our understanding of good-right, or natural, or inteneded or Joy, thus God is the absolute of this, steping away from God is away from a natural intention thus is is an "evil" for it is away from the God. We realise this "evil" because of free will allows us to step away from God if we desire. In the fall with the continuted depravity of creation that evil is more obvious

[tojo]

[quote name='Revprodeji' date='Dec 5 2005, 01:32 AM']God=good, for our understanding of good-right, or natural, or inteneded or Joy, thus God is the absolute of this, steping away from God is away from a natural intention thus is is an "evil" for it is away from the God. We realise this "evil" because of free will allows us to step away from God if we desire. In the fall with the continuted depravity of creation that evil is more obvious
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We must also keep in mind that the Fall clouds our ability to always discern what is and is not truly good.

[Semalsia]

Did God create goodness?

If he didn't, then he isn't the creator of everything.
If he did, then he could not have been good before he made it (that means he was evil).

[Brother Adam]

[quote name='Semalsia' date='Dec 13 2005, 12:14 PM']Did God create goodness?

If he didn't, then he isn't the creator of everything.
If he did, then he could not have been good before he made it (that means he was evil).
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Ah, the English Language. God is good. God was never not good. Goodness is not a created entity, but rather an attribute of many of those things which exists.

[Myles Domini]

[quote]Did God create goodness?

If he didn't, then he isn't the creator of everything.
If he did, then he could not have been good before he made it (that means he was evil). [/quote]

You're mixing up the qualities of created and uncreated essence. The goodness of the created is of a different order than the goodness of the uncreated (God). God is the author of all created essence and being and in this all of creation reflects what God is but it is not what God is. Every good quality we find in the world has an analogous relationship to what God is: every similiarity shows an even great dissimilarity as Lateran IV taught. The good that we find in the created cosmos is so far different from what the good is in God's uncreated essence that there is barely any similarity between them at all. God transcends the transcendentals.

Have a read of this: [url="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0268008019/qid=1134499270/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-7813054-9098266?n=507846&s=books&v=glance"]The Christian Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas by Etienne Gilson[/url]. The parts on ontology should sort you out .

INXC
Myles

[chickens4life]

God is good... and I mean literally, the word good came from the word God, and replaced it in a number of phrases such as, "Good Friday" (used to be "God friday"), "Good Bye" (used to be "God be With You").
When one word is a derect deivitive of the other, asking "is God good?" sound a lot like "is God God?". and when you look at it that way it seems kind of obviouse.

in Christ

John

[Guest JeffCR07]

[quote name='Semalsia' date='Dec 13 2005, 11:14 AM']Did God create goodness?

If he didn't, then he isn't the creator of everything.
If he did, then he could not have been good before he made it (that means he was evil).
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As others have pointed out, the correct understanding of "God is the creator of everything" is that "God is the creator of everything that is created."

Clearly, God did not create himself, because He is eternal. Because God is The Good, and God is uncreated, so so too then is The Good (which is God) also uncreated.

Your Brother In Christ,

Jeff

[Paphnutius]

I am sure that others have stated this but perhaps another voice in the crowd might drive the point home:

Goodness is not something created, but more likened to a participation inGod's "Goodness"