Both Objectivism and Subjectivism hold that there is a mind-independant reality; that we have an internal awarness (mind) and an external environment (independant reality). Objectivism says that all that there is to know about an object is inherent to the object. On the other hand, Subjectivism says that there is more to know about an object that is independant of the object (personal experience). So how do we determine if something is good or not? Objectively or Subjectively?
Furthermore, how does God see good; Subjectively or Objectively? Genesis 1:31 summerizes God's perspective on all that He had made; "God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good".
"Is something 'good' because of an inherent quality of 'goodess' (Objectivism)...[which is difficult if not impossible to determine] or because it is conventionally considered 'good' (Subjectivism)... [in which case there can be no absolute standards of goodness]. If God declares something good because it is good, then [it's goodness] is beyond the range of His power; If goodness is the result of a divine edict, then it is arbitrary" ---A world of Ideas. Chris Rohmann.
So did God step back and notice that everything He made was inherently good OR did He declare by His Divine Sovereignty that everything was good? Furthermore if everything was good, and God made everything, then where did evil come from?
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3 comments:
Your example of "good" in Gen. doesn't neccesarily mena "good" the way you seem to explain it here. You seem to be saying that because God said it was good that it was "not evil". When God said it was good it seems to me that He was saying that He was pleased with it. Here is the Hebrew meaning for you. (It looks to be objective only)
טוב = towb
The main meaning for this usage is the following according to Strong's Concordance:
1) good, pleasant, agreeable
a) pleasant, agreeable (to the senses)
b) pleasant (to the higher nature)
c) good, excellent (of its kind)
d) good, rich, valuable in estimation
e) good, appropriate, becoming
Jay, you left out adjectives (f) through (J)..
1) good, pleasant, agreeable
a) pleasant, agreeable (to the senses)
b) pleasant (to the higher nature)
c) good, excellent (of its kind)
d) good, rich, valuable in estimation
e) good, appropriate, becoming
f) better (comparative)
g) glad, happy, prosperous (of man's sensuous nature)
h) good understanding (of man's intellectual nature)
i) good, kind, benign
j) good, right (ethical
as well as the following Masculine NOUNS;
2) a good thing, benefit, welfare
a) welfare, prosperity, happiness
b) good things (collective)
c) good, benefit
d) moral good
and Female NOUNS:
3) welfare, benefit, good things
a) welfare, prosperity, happiness
b) good things (collective)
c) bounty
THUS "GOOD" (towb) CAN AND DOES REFER TO MORALITY IN THE CONTEXT OF GENISIS 2:17 and GENISI 3:22
As Albert Einstein is said to have pointed out, in response to a professor of atheist sympathies attempting to blame God for creating evil:
There is no such thing as cold, it is merely the absence of heat.
There is no such thing as darkness, it is merely the absence of light.
There is no such thing as evil, no substance to it, it is merely the absence of God.
Or, as C.S. Lewis wrote in The Screwtape Letters, "Nothing can be very strong."
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