God and "Goodness"

[Daecon]

Everyone knows God is supposed to be "good" right?

 

I was wondering, does is specifically state in the Bible (on, indeed anywhere) that the definition of "goodness" is morally benevolent, nice and kind, etc.

 

Wouldn't it be more appropriate to say God is "Good" in the sense that God is expertly competent?

 

God said "Let there be Light" and there was light and God saw it and saw that is was sufficient, indeed more than adequate for his purposes... the light was good.

[Phi for All]

I was wondering, does is specifically state in the Bible (on, indeed anywhere) that the definition of "goodness" is morally benevolent, nice and kind, etc.

You mean besides the Ten Commandments or the Golden Rule? I boil everything to do with spirituality down to this:

If there is a higher power and our consciousness lives on after our body dies, we may exist as pure consciousness.

 

If that's the case, some of the senses we lose when we're released from the body may be replaced with other senses (we may have them now but don't use them in favor of our more 3D oriented senses).

 

One of those senses may well be the ability to sense thoughts.

 

If you can read the thoughts of another consciousness, would you be more apt to want to read those of a good entity or an evil entity?

[ecoli]

Everyone knows God is supposed to be "good" right?

 

I was wondering' date=' does is [i']specifically[/i] state in the Bible (on, indeed anywhere) that the definition of "goodness" is morally benevolent, nice and kind, etc.

 

Wouldn't it be more appropriate to say God is "Good" in the sense that God is expertly competent?

 

God said "Let there be Light" and there was light and God saw it and saw that is was sufficient, indeed more than adequate for his purposes... the light was good.

 

As far as I know, it doesn't... but who says good is supposed to be anything. Maybe he's vengeful, and he's just keeping us on Earth as a feeding ground for our souls. Maybe he wants us to be "good" so it fattens our souls and makes them juicier, kind of like chickens.

[starbug1]

after our body dies, we may exist as pure consciousness[/b'].

 

does that come bottled or canned?

 

You mean besides the Ten Commandments or the Golden Rule?

 

The ten commandments are just a restating of what consitutes morality, and I really doubt God had anything to do with it. If this states god's goodness, more keeping tabs on us.

 

Maybe he's vengeful, and he's just keeping us on Earth as a feeding ground for our souls. Maybe he wants us to be "good" so it fattens our souls and makes them juicier, kind of like chickens.

 

That's on amazon.com. God's Plan: The Hansel and Gretel story

....isn't soul pretty much all ego and personal judgement? So god then is a manifestation of our ego's, as he sucks it away from us when we die with consciousness a bi-product? This makes for earth as a harvest center, and then God's goodness is severely contradictory, for some people.

[ecoli]

That's on amazon.com. God's Plan: The Hansel and Gretel story

....isn't soul pretty much all ego and personal judgement? So god then is a manifestation of our ego's' date=' as he sucks it away from us when we die with consciousness a bi-product? This makes for earth as a harvest center, and then God's goodness is severely contradictory, for some people.[/quote']

 

I was basing that off of HAnsel and Gretel,

 

And why not? It's the perfect way for God to lead us directly into his hungry jaws.

[Phi for All]

If this states god's goodness, more keeping tabs on us.

Plus on weasel, day turns over lemony.

As far as I know, it doesn't... but who says good is supposed to be anything. Maybe he's vengeful, and he's just keeping us on Earth as a feeding ground for our souls. Maybe he wants us to be "good" so it fattens our souls and makes them juicier, kind of like chickens.

To avoid anthropocentrism, I've always envisioned Earth as just one lab in a universe full of labs, and humans as an experiment. Maybe Earth is really a kitchen among a universe of kitchens and God is wearing a pointy black hat and waiting to shove us in the oven.

 

Would it be "good" to shove Him in first? Is that really what He wants us to do, wake up and realize we're being fattened for the kill if we don't shape up and take action?

[starbug1]

To avoid anthropocentrism' date=' I've always envisioned Earth as just one lab in a universe full of labs, and humans as an experiment. Maybe Earth is really a kitchen among a universe of kitchens and God is wearing a pointy black hat and waiting to shove us in the oven.

 

Would it be "good" to shove Him in first? Is that really what He wants us to do, wake up and realize we're being fattened for the kill if we don't shape up and take action?[/quote']

 

Okay...I'm confused. Is God cooking us, or sucking out our souls, or is the oven a metaphor for death, and that's how our bodies are interred into "a crisp" and consciousness is realeased, as a sign of God. Or were you being quiptitious. In any case, shoving him in first seems hard to do. Though is god even palpable to begin with?

[Daecon]

Hmm... this isn't quite how I envisaged the discussion going when I made that first post.

 

BTW - What's this "Golden Rule"?

[starbug1]

BTW - What's this "Golden Rule"?

 

I think it's either "Silence is golden." or "Do unto other's as you would have them do unto you."

[Phi for All]

Wouldn't it be more appropriate to say God is "Good" in the sense that God is expertly competent?

If you don't attribute omnipotence or omniscience to God, and merely grant It supreme control of the physics of the universe, then in that sense God would be the ultimate Good, the Supremely Competent, the One who can manipulate matter best within the laws as It knows them.

BTW - What's this "Golden Rule"?

Do unto others as you would have others do unto you, or something very similar.

Is God cooking us, or sucking out our souls, or is the oven a metaphor for death, and that's how our bodies are interred into "a crisp" and consciousness is realeased, as a sign of God. Or were you being quiptitious. In any case, shoving him in first seems hard to do. Though is god even palpable to begin with?

I can give you no palpable answer.

[starbug1]

yep. the latter was right...

 

http://www.jcu.edu/philosophy/gensler/goldrule.htm

[Daecon]

If you don't attribute omnipotence or omniscience to God' date=' and merely grant It supreme control of the physics of the universe, then in that sense God would be the ultimate Good, the Supremely Competent, the One who can manipulate matter best within the laws as It knows them.

[/quote']

You can be all powerful and still be an idiot just in the same way as you can know everything but not care.

[starbug1]

You can be all powerful and still be an idiot just in the same way as you can know everything but not care.

 

But only in God are omnipotence and omniscence combined.

[Daecon]

How about this analogy:

 

If I could hack into the SciForums website source code, I would be able to do anything at all I wanted, and I can see everything there is to know about the code and HTML and everything, all right there in front of me on the screen - but I still wouldn't know what I'm doing as I have no knowledge of coding for message board forums.

 

For the sake of argument - I'm omnipotent and omniscient, but not competant.

 

The anaolgy may be a little off, but do you see what I'm trying to say?

[elas]

Wouldn't it be more appropriate to say God is "Good" in the sense that God is expertly competent?

 

The primary function of God is to ensure the continuity of life. This requires the promotion of that which is beneficial to society and the discouragement of that which is detrimental. In between there is a large neutral area.

In order to enjoy life there must not only be the upside, but also the downside (in order to appreciate the ups). This requires freedom to enjoy and freedom not to enjoy, happiness and sadness, approval and disapproval, expertness and incompetence, likes and dislikes.

Eternity is not a religious place, but a place where life continues. In order to ensure society does not self-destruct it is necessary to have some control. Rather than brain washed obedience, eternity requires an appropriate use of freedom. This is done by ensuring that the way you use freedom in this life will determine your abilities in the next life, a bit like genetics; God does not waste time sitting in judgment neither is God a control freak. Abuse power in this life and you will lack the ability to exert power in the next, and so on. But it is your decision, not God’s; God‘s job is to keep the system running.

God can make mistakes, but unique among beings, God must judge his own acts and correct mistakes without guidance from a superior; this is why we can communicate with God and put our point of view, it helps God to do his job. God’s guidance comes from inferiors.

Stop thinking of God in religious terms and start thinking of God as essential to the system. The buck stops with God.

[rising moon]

^sounds to me, God is only instrument.

How can you say eternity is not raligious place??

What are you trying to say God as essential to systems. What God for system?

 

Now. this is strange.

How can God act like Hansel Gretel story who works on lab which all creation are experiment.

 

I have read book.

Every creation. all of it is Godself expressing. Each of creation bring quality and characteristic of God.

This creation from all you've known,is called Signs of God.

This Signs contain Knowledge to Know God.

This"invisible light" cannot be read except someone able to unlock knowledge hidden in Holy Book.

 

have you heard about someone that have knowledge from holy book in King Solomon era/time. He can bring Queen balqis throne before King Solomon' eye wink!

Now thats example of knowledge hidden in holy book.

 

Our science try as hard as they can to imitate this.

They dream about network hypergate jump travel that can travel very far place in millions/billions years of light.

But, still didnt not significant progress.

or, they try to create synthesis negative space based on theory of everything..

[rising moon]

Those are qualities and characteristics of God....are Goodness that Belong only to God, human have nothing even they dont have their existence(they cannot choose or reject God to not create them,they only know "why we are here?).

Human only have free will to choose. All doing are originate from God.There are no power except (from) God.

[abskebabs]

If there is a God why does he/she/it(whatever) have to be good or bad. These are simply the products of the human mind and society, wouldn't God be beyond both anyway? I think this is one prevalent belief in hinduism. I have to admit though, I have a certain disdain for the word "hinduism" as it is simply an anachronism of a poorly translated persian word used to denote the wide range of people who inhabited the indian subcontinent. For example there are or were people who are called hindus now, but would probably fit the description of agnostic or atheist best(I think one group were the Carvaka philosophers). Therefore I'm glad to say I'm still a hindu:D !