Question I was in conversation with a friend about the problem of evil when gave examples of human evil on innocents that God could have prevented, he said the act is evil on our morality but not on God's morality. He knows omniscience so he the act might not be evil for him for the reasons we don't know. Does this even make sense? When our morality is so different than God, when we say good, the word good could mean very different when applied to God? What would we even mean when God is perfectly good? Any responses to the argument?

Accepted:
July 31, 2019

Comments

Great questions and concerns.

Great questions and concerns. For most philosophical theists (those who affirm the existence of God) "good" and "evil" need to be used with the same sense / meaning in terms of humans and God. For you to be compassionate and God to be compassionate and to be called 'good' presumably we mean praise-worthy / desirable / it is better that there is such compassion rather than not. But value judgements are often contextual depending on those involved. For those in the Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), God is understood to be the creator and sustainer of the cosmos, who is revealed in human history through prophets and (for Christians) in the incarnation. As such, God is not to be assessed as we would assess a human bi-stander. So, for you and I to not prevent a murder when we could do so is blameworthy. Does it follow that if God has created and sustained a cosmos in which there is murder, then God is blameworthy? Maybe, but so many factors enter into this. One has to do with what is called the Free Will Defense, and the appeal to Greater Goods. Check out the entry Philosophy of Religion on the free online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Most theists believe that when something is evil (murder of innocent persons) this is contrary to the will and nature of God, a misuse of power, a destroying of something sacred. It is (as you might explore in the free will defense) never justified (right or ultimately good) from the standpoint of the Abrahamic faiths. Nonetheless, most philosophers in this tradition contend that an all good God may allow some evils in order to ultimately redeem both victims and victimizers. I have worked up such a view in two books you might check out: Contemporary Philosophical Theology co-authored with Chad Meister and What is Philosophy of Religion? Your concerns and questions are excellent and I hope you might find one of these sources helpful.